BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer's Act

Mr. President, I rise to speak about the mass shooting in Texas yesterday--the latest mass shooting in what seems like never-ending gun violence in our country. My heart breaks for the victims and their families and for the community of Sutherland Springs in Texas.

We are still gathering all the facts about this specific crime. We are still learning about what happened, how this murderer was able to purchase a gun, whatever his twisted rationale was for walking into a house of worship in a small town and slaughtering more than 20 people, including young children, with an assault weapon. Our incredible law enforcement officials are working hard to answer all of that, but the most important fact of all is something we already know very well. This was yet another case where someone on American soil who had absolutely no business getting his hands on a weapon of war was able to get one and use it to commit heinous mass murder.

Of the five worst mass shootings in our history, three of them have occurred in just the past 17 months. Think about that. In a small town in America, nearly 7 percent of the town's population was slaughtered just because they went to church that day. The weapon he used was based on a military weapon designed for a war zone, but this was not a war zone. It was a church. People were singing and praying and savoring life.

I reject the notion that it is too soon to act. If not now, then when? We should ban assault weapons and bump stocks today. People who don't want to have an honest conversation say we need to wait. Well, for how long? Because we wait, and we wait, and we will see evil rear its ugly head over and over again, and we are told to wait again.

We have enough information today for Congress to do its job and try to keep our constituents safe from gun violence. We had enough information before yesterday to act, but what Congress does not have is the political will to act. My friends, this must change. Thoughts and prayers are not going to stop the next mass shooting. Merely talking about doing something about the mentally ill obtaining guns isn't going to stop the next deranged person with hate in their soul from committing yet another mass murder. The Second Amendment does not mean that Americans should have to risk getting shot because they walked down the wrong street in a city or decided to go to a music festival in Las Vegas or a night club in Orlando or an elementary school in Newtown or a movie theater in Aurora or a church on Sunday in Texas.

After each of these horrific acts of violence, what happened here in Congress? Nothing. More than a month after Las Vegas, we still can't even tackle the most obvious fixes like banning bump stocks. Plain and simple, Americans are being slaughtered and Congress is refusing to protect them.

I hear my colleagues who rightly say we can't pass laws to stop every instance of a deranged gunman who wants to kill innocent men, women, and children, just like our other criminal laws will not necessarily stop every instance of crime, but there is no excuse for not even trying. Everyone in this Chamber knows that a shooting in a church is something that should never happen in this country. Mr. President, I think you would agree with that. I think everyone who serves in this Chamber would agree with that. So then why aren't we doing anything to stop this violence? Why aren't we making it harder for a crazed, evil person to get their hands on a weapon of war?

It makes me wonder what our colleagues are waiting for. Are they waiting for the NRA to come in and give them cover and tell them it is OK to act? Are they waiting for the NRA to give them permission to stand up and do something? If the NRA said today assault rifles or bump stocks should be banned, it would be done tomorrow. That is the sad truth of this place, but we know the NRA will not say that because they want to keep selling these weapons of war to anyone who is willing to buy them, no matter how unsafe it makes it for the rest of us.

Congress has caved in over and over again to the enormous pressure by the NRA and the gun industry--which just wants to protect their profits--and has ignored the vast majority of Americans. Gun owners and nongun owners alike support commonsense measures to keep their fellow Americans safe.

These mass slaughters continue, and Congress has done nothing-- absolutely nothing. To me, this is a monumental failure of leadership, and it is no wonder that gun violence and mass shootings happen here at a higher rate than any other developed country in the world. This has to change. It is not enough to solve the individual crime after the fact. We have to take meaningful, real action to prevent the next one. This is what has to happen. To those who doubt that Congress can actually get something done, we already know that, depending on the motivation, depending on whom Congress is actually listening to, Congress is fully capable of moving quickly to enact change. Instead of acting like its hands are tied and refusing to do anything--which is what is happening right now--far more often than not, Congress listens to the special interests instead of the people who actually elect them to keep them safe.

Look at the shameful state of our gun laws now and tell me if you think these laws came about because families in our States demanded them or was it because the NRA demanded them? Congress has turned a collective back on strengthening and expanding our national background check system. We should be fixing the holes in the system--whatever is necessary--not just

shrugging our shoulders and saying there is nothing that can be done. Who do you think demanded that we don't fix the background check system? Was it families in your State or was it the NRA? Congress refuses to ban high-capacity magazines, which are literally made for war, and let killers fire dozens of rounds without having to stop and reload. Who do you think demanded that, families or the NRA?

Congress still refuses to ban assault weapons, which are designed for war--designed to kill as many people as possible as rapidly as possible but are given different names so they can be sold in the civilian world. Who do you think demanded that, our families or the NRA?

Congress is on the verge of passing legislation to make it easier right now for killers to buy suppressers, known by many of us as silencers, to attach to their weapons and make it harder for the police to do their jobs and catch violent criminals. Who do you think demanded that? Certainly not the police and not our families--the NRA.

Congress is dragging its feet on banning bump stocks, the inexpensive piece of equipment the killer in Las Vegas used to turn its already- powerful firearm into an automatic weapon capable of firing hundreds of rounds per minute. Who do you think demanded that, families or the NRA?

Just this February, Congress overturned a rule that had prevented people who were so incapacitated that they could no longer handle their own finances from getting their hands on a gun. Who do you think demanded that, families or the NRA?

Congress even went so far as to pass a law that blocked the Centers for Disease Control from studying the issue of gun deaths the way they are allowed to study any other cause of death in this country. Why? Because it is an attempt to hide the overwhelming data showing that keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people would decrease gun crime. Who do you think demanded that? Who do you think demanded that Congress suppress the facts and the alarming data about gun violence? Do you think it was families or the NRA?

This really has to change. Congress needs to start protecting the people we were elected to represent. Their voices matter, and it really does matter whom you are listening to. Their voices matter, and they must be heard. We must listen and enact change that would actually help to keep our States safer from gun violence. We are the ones who need to act. We can't ignore our responsibility to keep our country safe from this kind of violence.

To all the people who are watching us right now, I would say this: After all these massacres, pay attention to what your elected leaders are saying. Pay attention to what they are actually doing. Watch how they react. Look closely at how they use their time here. Listen to what they say or don't say. After these mass shootings, did they tell you we were going to bow our heads for a moment of silence and leave it there or did they tell you we were going to fight with every bit of energy to actually fix these broken gun laws and protect our American citizens?

Democracy only works when regular people stand up and demand action. I urge everyone listening today to demand that action and to hold elected leaders accountable and to ask them to pass meaningful gun reform now.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today with my colleague from Nevada, Senator Cortez Masto, to introduce the Building Our Largest Dementia Infrastructure for Alzheimer's--or BOLD--Act. I am pleased that Senator Capito and Senator Kaine are also joining us as original cosponsors.

Our legislation would create a public health infrastructure aimed at combating Alzheimer's disease and preserving brain health. Alzheimer's disease is one of the greatest and most under-recognized public health threats of our time. Former Surgeon General David Satcher has said that it is the most under-recognized public health threat of the 21st century. Five and a half million Americans are living with the disease, and that number will soar as our population continues to grow older and lives longer.

In addition to the human suffering it causes, Alzheimer's is our Nation's most costly disease. The United States spends more than $259 billion per year, including $175 billion in Medicare and Medicaid costs. The financial impact of this dreadful disease will only continue to grow. In fact, it is estimated that by the year 2050, Alzheimer's will cost our country $1 trillion and afflict 16 million Americans.

While Alzheimer's is the only one of our Nation's most deadly diseases without an effective treatment or cure, tantalizing new research suggests that there are steps we can take to promote prevention and improve treatment.

The first step we should take is to recognize Alzheimer's as a public health crisis. It is because of public health advancements that we have safe water to drink, vaccines to prevent deadly diseases, interventions to quit smoking, and emergency preparedness tools to save lives. The effort to combat Alzheimer's disease requires a similar unified, national public health effort. That effort is gaining steam.

In 1999, when I founded the Bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer's, there was virtually no focus in Washington on this devastating disease. In fact, people were afraid to even refer to the disease, just as years ago people did not talk about cancer.

Seven years ago, I coauthored with then-Senator Evan Bayh the bipartisan National Alzheimer's Project Act, which set the primary goal of preventing and effectively treating the disease by the year 2025. That bill created an expert council, which has calculated that $2 billion in Federal funding per year is needed to achieve that goal.

On the Appropriations Committee, I have worked hard with Senator Blunt and others to turn the words of that recommendation into action. The funding bill for this year provides another $2 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health, and that includes a $414 million increase for Alzheimer's research--the largest in history. That brings the total for Alzheimer's research to $1.8 billion--well within reach of the $2 billion goal, which the experts tell us is necessary for breakthroughs.

While this research is moving forward, we must put into practice what we know and enhance the quality of care and support for those living with Alzheimer's and their families. In March, the Aging Committee, which I chair, held a hearing on the arc of Alzheimer's, from preventing cognitive decline to ensuring quality care for those living with dementia. The hearing shed light on the fact that although we do not yet know how to prevent Alzheimer's, we are advancing in our understanding of the disease. Its progression does not happen overnight; it is preceded by years and perhaps decades of changes in the brain and a continuum of changes in behavior, including cognitive decline. A growing body of evidence suggests that lifestyle factors, such as regular physical activity and attention to heart health, may reduce the risk of cognitive decline. There is so much we have yet to know.

Alzheimer's is a public issue for those living with the disease, for those caring for their loved ones with the disease, for all of us as taxpayers, and for those who know that our brain is our most precious resource. Alzheimer's exacts a tremendous personal and economic toll on families and communities. More than 40 million Americans know all too well the compassion, commitment, and endurance that it takes to be a caregiver of a loved one facing a chronic disease like Alzheimer's.

The legislation we are introducing today would apply a new public health approach to Alzheimer's disease. It would establish Centers of Excellence in Public Health Practice dedicated to promoting effective Alzheimer's disease management and caregiving interventions, as well as educating the public on the disease, cognitive decline, and brain health.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is already doing tremendous work to combat Alzheimer's within the Public Health Road Map of the Healthy Brain Initiative. This legislation would create centers of excellence across the country to implement the CDC's Public Health Road Map. The centers would take a number of key steps against Alzheimer's. They would work to support early detection and diagnosis, lessen the risk of avoidable hospitalizations, reduce the risk of cognitive decline, enhance support to meet the needs of caregivers, reduce health disparities, and support care planning and management for those with the disease. The Centers' activities would support health and social services professionals as well as families and communities.

In addition to establishing the Centers of Excellence in Public Health Practice, this bill would spread the opportunity for communities across America to create the necessary core capacity to combat Alzheimer's and to enhance existing efforts in this regard. The legislation would establish and distribute cooperative agreements to public health departments to support systems change, communications, and programmatic interventions. These agreements would also support the actions in the CDC Healthy Brain Initiative's Public Health Roadmap.

Finally, at the heart of public health is data. This legislation would direct the CDC to collect data on cognitive decline, cognitive impairment, caregiving, and health disparities within its current systems. The bill would also create cooperative agreements for the analysis and reporting of data to ensure that the results are disseminated to the public and are used, ultimately, to improve brain health.

For far too long, we have viewed Alzheimer's disease as an aging issue that plagues our seniors today and threatens to affect many more tomorrow. In fact, the disease is far more than that.

It is a public health issue with a course that we can change. If we do not take action, both in this new public health approach and by continuing to build on the research, this disease will bankrupt the Medicare and the Medicaid Programs. We cannot afford to spend over $1 trillion in the year 2050 on just this one disease. We cannot afford to lose 16 million Americans by that year to this devastating disease. We cannot afford to allow the heartache and devastation of this disease to affect more and more American families.

There are steps that we can take today to prevent cognitive decline and to improve the lives of those who are living with Alzheimer's and the lives of their caregivers. This public health approach is not only empowering, but it is key to avoiding the terrible impacts that I have outlined.

After decades of expanding much needed biomedical research in Alzheimer's, we are ready for the next step--to translate research into policy. The BOLD bill would create a new, enlightened public policy out of promising research by creating the first ever national public health infrastructure for Alzheimer's disease.

I am pleased to say that the bipartisan bill that the Senator from Nevada and I have introduced, with our colleagues from Virginia and West Virginia, is endorsed by the Alzheimer's Association, the Alzheimer's Impact Movement, the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, and the National Association of Counties.

I ask unanimous consent that their letters of support be printed in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.

I urge my colleagues to support this critical and bipartisan legislation.

I am now very pleased to yield to the coauthor of this important bill. Senator Cortez Masto has been an extraordinary member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging. She attends every single hearing, which is amazing, given our schedules, and she contributes so much to the debate and questioning in those hearings. I am delighted to join in this effort with her.

Mr. President, I rise today with my colleague from Nevada, Senator Cortez Masto, to introduce the Building Our Largest Dementia Infrastructure for Alzheimer's--or BOLD--Act. I am pleased that Senator Capito and Senator Kaine are also joining us as original cosponsors.

Our legislation would create a public health infrastructure aimed at combating Alzheimer's disease and preserving brain health. Alzheimer's disease is one of the greatest and most under-recognized public health threats of our time. Former Surgeon General David Satcher has said that it is the most under-recognized public health threat of the 21st century. Five and a half million Americans are living with the disease, and that number will soar as our population continues to grow older and lives longer.

In addition to the human suffering it causes, Alzheimer's is our Nation's most costly disease. The United States spends more than $259 billion per year, including $175 billion in Medicare and Medicaid costs. The financial impact of this dreadful disease will only continue to grow. In fact, it is estimated that by the year 2050, Alzheimer's will cost our country $1 trillion and afflict 16 million Americans.

While Alzheimer's is the only one of our Nation's most deadly diseases without an effective treatment or cure, tantalizing new research suggests that there are steps we can take to promote prevention and improve treatment.

The first step we should take is to recognize Alzheimer's as a public health crisis. It is because of public health advancements that we have safe water to drink, vaccines to prevent deadly diseases, interventions to quit smoking, and emergency preparedness tools to save lives. The effort to combat Alzheimer's disease requires a similar unified, national public health effort. That effort is gaining steam.

In 1999, when I founded the Bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer's, there was virtually no focus in Washington on this devastating disease. In fact, people were afraid to even refer to the disease, just as years ago people did not talk about cancer.

Seven years ago, I coauthored with then-Senator Evan Bayh the bipartisan National Alzheimer's Project Act, which set the primary goal of preventing and effectively treating the disease by the year 2025. That bill created an expert council, which has calculated that $2 billion in Federal funding per year is needed to achieve that goal.

On the Appropriations Committee, I have worked hard with Senator Blunt and others to turn the words of that recommendation into action. The funding bill for this year provides another $2 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health, and that includes a $414 million increase for Alzheimer's research--the largest in history. That brings the total for Alzheimer's research to $1.8 billion--well within reach of the $2 billion goal, which the experts tell us is necessary for breakthroughs.

While this research is moving forward, we must put into practice what we know and enhance the quality of care and support for those living with Alzheimer's and their families. In March, the Aging Committee, which I chair, held a hearing on the arc of Alzheimer's, from preventing cognitive decline to ensuring quality care for those living with dementia. The hearing shed light on the fact that although we do not yet know how to prevent Alzheimer's, we are advancing in our understanding of the disease. Its progression does not happen overnight; it is preceded by years and perhaps decades of changes in the brain and a continuum of changes in behavior, including cognitive decline. A growing body of evidence suggests that lifestyle factors, such as regular physical activity and attention to heart health, may reduce the risk of cognitive decline. There is so much we have yet to know.

Alzheimer's is a public issue for those living with the disease, for those caring for their loved ones with the disease, for all of us as taxpayers, and for those who know that our brain is our most precious resource. Alzheimer's exacts a tremendous personal and economic toll on families and communities. More than 40 million Americans know all too well the compassion, commitment, and endurance that it takes to be a caregiver of a loved one facing a chronic disease like Alzheimer's.

The legislation we are introducing today would apply a new public health approach to Alzheimer's disease. It would establish Centers of Excellence in Public Health Practice dedicated to promoting effective Alzheimer's disease management and caregiving interventions, as well as educating the public on the disease, cognitive decline, and brain health.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is already doing tremendous work to combat Alzheimer's within the Public Health Road Map of the Healthy Brain Initiative. This legislation would create centers of excellence across the country to implement the CDC's Public Health Road Map. The centers would take a number of key steps against Alzheimer's. They would work to support early detection and diagnosis, lessen the risk of avoidable hospitalizations, reduce the risk of cognitive decline, enhance support to meet the needs of caregivers, reduce health disparities, and support care planning and management for those with the disease. The Centers' activities would support health and social services professionals as well as families and communities.

In addition to establishing the Centers of Excellence in Public Health Practice, this bill would spread the opportunity for communities across America to create the necessary core capacity to combat Alzheimer's and to enhance existing efforts in this regard. The legislation would establish and distribute cooperative agreements to public health departments to support systems change, communications, and programmatic interventions. These agreements would also support the actions in the CDC Healthy Brain Initiative's Public Health Roadmap.

Finally, at the heart of public health is data. This legislation would direct the CDC to collect data on cognitive decline, cognitive impairment, caregiving, and health disparities within its current systems. The bill would also create cooperative agreements for the analysis and reporting of data to ensure that the results are disseminated to the public and are used, ultimately, to improve brain health.

For far too long, we have viewed Alzheimer's disease as an aging issue that plagues our seniors today and threatens to affect many more tomorrow. In fact, the disease is far more than that.

It is a public health issue with a course that we can change. If we do not take action, both in this new public health approach and by continuing to build on the research, this disease will bankrupt the Medicare and the Medicaid Programs. We cannot afford to spend over $1 trillion in the year 2050 on just this one disease. We cannot afford to lose 16 million Americans by that year to this devastating disease. We cannot afford to allow the heartache and devastation of this disease to affect more and more American families.

There are steps that we can take today to prevent cognitive decline and to improve the lives of those who are living with Alzheimer's and the lives of their caregivers. This public health approach is not only empowering, but it is key to avoiding the terrible impacts that I have outlined.

After decades of expanding much needed biomedical research in Alzheimer's, we are ready for the next step--to translate research into policy. The BOLD bill would create a new, enlightened public policy out of promising research by creating the first ever national public health infrastructure for Alzheimer's disease.

I am pleased to say that the bipartisan bill that the Senator from Nevada and I have introduced, with our colleagues from Virginia and West Virginia, is endorsed by the Alzheimer's Association, the Alzheimer's Impact Movement, the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, and the National Association of Counties.

I ask unanimous consent that their letters of support be printed in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.

I urge my colleagues to support this critical and bipartisan legislation.

I am now very pleased to yield to the coauthor of this important bill. Senator Cortez Masto has been an extraordinary member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging. She attends every single hearing, which is amazing, given our schedules, and she contributes so much to the debate and questioning in those hearings. I am delighted to join in this effort with her.

Mr. President, today we join the stunned community of Sutherland Springs, TX--a small town near San Antonio--in mourning the loss of too many innocent lives. One innocent life is too many.

I listened to the impassioned comments of our colleague from New York asking us to do something, but I actually think it is important we understand exactly what did happen, and once the fog of this terrible tragic event lifts, after the law enforcement agencies can do the appropriate investigation, then I think it is appropriate for us to ask: What can we do, consistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States--what can we do to make something like this less likely?

I wish I was optimistic there was some magic wand we could wave and that we could prevent terrible tragedies like this, but in a free and open society, unfortunately, we don't have that magic wand.

On the other hand, we have arrived at a consensus, I think, in this country, that background checks, for example, are appropriate for people suffering from mental illness, people who committed previous felonies. Those people are banned from possessing or purchasing firearms, and there is a consensus that they should be banned.

There are some early reports--and, again, the fog of this terrible tragedy has not yet lifted. We need clarity in order to know what did and did not happen and where we might be able to act to make a difference. There is some indication by some news reports that this individual had committed domestic violence and had been convicted of that by a court-martial. That, too, would likely have been a disqualifying factor in his ability to possess or purchase firearms. So we need to know exactly what the facts are.

I appreciate the passion of our colleague from New York. We are all stunned by what happened, but I think being rational people, we ought to want to know exactly what the facts are before we decide what the best course of action might be. It may be that, like we saw a few years back at Virginia Tech, an individual who had previously been adjudicated mentally ill, that determination, that judgment was not entered into the National Instant Background Checks System run by the FBI, and because it wasn't--because of a failure of communication between the State and Federal authorities--he was able to purchase a firearm when he was legally disqualified from being able to do so.

So those are the sorts of things I think we could work together on. I know, for example, after the terrible shooting in Las Vegas, I was shocked, like so many others were, that somebody could essentially bypass the prohibition against making a semiautomatic weapon into an automatic weapon by the use of the so-called bump stock. As somebody who enjoys the outdoors and is a hunter and enjoys recreational shooting, I can tell you I know of no sportsman, no hunter, who uses a bump stock. It seems to me the sole purpose of this is to bypass the prohibition about turning semiautomatic weapons into automatic weapons. That is something I hope the Senate Judiciary Committee will continue to look into and determine whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms ought to be extended the authority to regulate the so-called bump stocks.

Back when President Obama was President of the United States, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms said they did not believe they had the authority, but several of us have written to them and asked them to clarify for us just where they think they do have authority and where they feel they need additional authority so we can work with them, hopefully, to prevent terrible tragedies like that from occurring in the future.

Yesterday we all received the news that a gunman opened fire on parishioners at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, TX, killing at least 26 people during the Sunday morning church service. I can't imagine a more vulnerable time. People were sitting in the pews with their heads bowed and their eyes closed and then were exposed to this madman unleashing death in that house of worship. The victims included young children and a pregnant woman, among others. All 26 of them are now gone, aged 18 months to 72 years old.

This small community and an entire Nation must now bind its wounds as we mourn the dead and meet the face of evil with moral clarity and a newfound determination to stem the violence that continues to plague the United States of the America.

We saw in New York that somebody used a vehicle--a car--to mow down people and to kill people as an act of terrorism.

We are vulnerable in so many ways because we are an open society. Unfortunately, these sorts of tragedies seem to come back to us time and again, and we in Texas are not immune.

We remember the knife attack at the University of Texas in Austin earlier this year. We remember the shooting of police officers in downtown Dallas last year, where five police officers perished, and at Fort Hood in 2009. Each of

these events has been shocking, inexplicable, and, certainly, reprehensible.

This tragedy may be the worst of all. That this event occurred in a house of worship makes it all the more grotesque and despicable. Hymns of praise were silenced, and those led to cries for help.

The shooting in Sutherland Springs has been called the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history. It is perhaps better understood by the words of one man whose mother and father were both killed yesterday. He was sitting on the curb, outside the emergency room, at Connally Memorial Medical Center in Floresville, a town nearby. Shaken to the core, he called the events of yesterday ``unimaginable.'' It is impossible to comprehend what it must have felt like to wake up this morning in Sutherland Springs--a small, tight-knit, rural community that is roughly 35 miles southeast of San Antonio--with so many neighbors lost and the sound of yesterday's gunfire and sirens still ringing in the air.

One of the people who lost her life was Crystal Holcombe, who died with her unborn child and several relatives. Another was Annabelle Pomeroy, a shy 14-year-old girl, whose uncle describes her as an ``angel in the flesh.''

We know, thankfully, that two Good Samaritans turned on and pursued the shooter and may have prevented this nightmare from lasting even longer. We are grateful for the heroism and the quick decisive action of these two men. We know that about 20 injured remain in hospitals, including a 5-year-old, Ryland Ward, who was shot multiple times.

Yesterday I spoke with Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt, Jr., and offered not only my condolences but my unequivocal and complete support. Sheriff Tackitt said that the bloody scene inside First Baptist was horrific, but that the response to the tragedy was instantaneous. First responders from the surrounding area, as well as State and Federal officials, inundated Sutherland Springs with logistical resources and personnel, offering their love and compassion, as well--a proud display of what I often see, which is an attitude that being a Texan doesn't describe just where you are from. It describes who your family is.

Today I join the sheriff, as well as Governor Abbott, and my friend Representative Henry Cuellar, in whose congressional district this tragedy occurred, my colleague in the Senate, Senator Cruz, and so many other Texans in asking God for healing and for understanding.

We know the investigation into exactly what happened and why is ongoing, and it is important that we allow this investigation to be completed so we can know what happened and exactly what we might be able to do to prevent tragedies like this from occurring in the future.

I hope that Texans who call Sutherland Springs and First Baptist Church home will soon have some answers. I send my thoughts and prayers to those who lost parents, children, friends, and relatives in this outrageous and inhuman act. I hope each of us will pledge to be a light in the darkness. To the families whose lives are forever changed by this atrocity, let us provide a strong shoulder of support.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I rise to thank my colleague from Maine, whose amazing work as chair of the Aging Committee continues to inspire me.

I also rise to share a story that is very personal to me. It is a story about one of the smartest people whom I have known, my grandmother Katherine, whom I was named after. She was the daughter of an Italian immigrant and his Italian-American wife. She was exactly the kind of person you think of when you think of an Italian grandmother. If you have ever had one, you know that she loves to feed people and invite the whole family--aunts, uncles, cousins, everyone--over to her house for dinner on Sunday nights. The other 6 days of the week, she worked on volunteer projects throughout Las Vegas with her sorority, Beta Sigma Phi.

She never graduated from college, but she was a leader in our community, and she was always reading. If you walked into her house, it was full of books. In fact, the first thing that you saw when you walked into her house was, on one wall, floor to ceiling, a bookcase with all of the books that she had read.

She was brilliant. She was one of my greatest inspirations. Her work in our community in Las Vegas is one of the reasons that I decided to pursue a career in public service.

Unfortunately, in the 1990s, my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. At first, you could barely notice a difference. There were small things, things that could happen to anyone--lost keys, mismatched socks, books left in odd places. Then a woman who had spent her entire life loving to cook for her family and grandchildren had suddenly stopped cooking.

Over the next 10 years, she got progressively worse. We could see the changes in her every single day, but our lives changed too. My grandfather became her caregiver. My mother became her caregiver. My aunt became her caregiver. My cousins and I and my sister all became caregivers. That is what happens when someone is diagnosed. It does not affect just one person; it affects an entire family.

There is a common misconception that people who are suffering from Alzheimer's are not aware of what they are losing, that their memories are gone but not missed. That was not the case for my grandmother. I do not think it is the case for anyone who is struggling with this disease. My grandmother frequently had these moments of clarity when it was clear that the losses were just as painful for her as they were for all of us.

One thing that happens to many people with Alzheimer's is that they tend to wander. They wander away from home or they get lost. She had had one of those moments of clarity after she had wandered away from home one day, and the entire family had spent an afternoon looking for her in our neighborhood. My aunt and I had found her and had gone to pick her up in a car. I will never forget it, as I sat in the back seat while my aunt drove.

My grandmother, who had been seated on the front passenger's side, asked my aunt: Why am I doing this? Why am I in my housecoat and slippers? Why am I doing this?

My aunt looked at her and she said: Mom, you are sick. You have something they call Alzheimer's, and that means that it is impacting your brain and your memories, and you are forgetting.

We were so powerless. We couldn't do anything but make her comfortable and bring her home.

For many, many families who are dealing with Alzheimer's, they have gone through those same moments--those moments when they are dealing with their loved ones either trying to explain to them what is happening or giving them comfort because they know their memories are gone, and they want to make sure they are giving them the comfort they need and they deserve.

We know, unfortunately, that there is no cure for Alzheimer's. My grandmother passed away, as many people with Alzheimer's do, when her illness got so bad that she lost the ability to eat or drink, but the experience of caring for my grandmother opened my eyes to the true impact of this disease. I saw that when one person is diagnosed, whole families' lives are transformed too. I think about my grandmother every day. Every day, I return to some piece of wisdom or guidance that she shared with me. I am committed now to honoring her memory by fighting to prevent Alzheimer's and to provide caregivers with the support they need and deserve.

When my grandmother was first diagnosed, we did not understand Alzheimer's like we do today. We did not have enough healthcare programs for it or support for the caregivers. It was seen as an individual disease that struck at random, with no cure and no hope. Although there is still no cure, we know now that there are things that we can do to help to keep the brain healthy longer and possibly reduce the risk of Alzheimer's and that there are things that we can do now to promote prevention.

For those who are already living with Alzheimer's and for their caregivers, like my family was for my grandmother, there are things that we can do to dramatically improve their experiences and to help lessen some of that burden. Today there are things we can do to invest in finding that cure for Alzheimer's. It is just a petri dish away, but we have to believe that it is there and that we can continue and support that investment. I have visited the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas and met with its director, Dr. Jeffrey Cummings. I have seen the incredible work they have done, including their methods for the early detection of Alzheimer's, which simply did not exist only a few years ago. Yet education in the community and the spreading of best practices still lag behind.

There is no longer any doubt that this is a public health crisis. That is why I am so grateful and proud to be sitting on a committee and working with a chairwoman, my colleague from Maine, who has made an effort here in Congress to really bring attention to Alzheimer's disease and to help to fight for funding and investment in a cure.

I am proud to join my colleagues from Maine, West Virginia, and Virginia in introducing legislation that is known as the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer's Act. This bill will create Centers of Excellence that will be dedicated to promoting effective interventions and educating the public on Alzheimer's disease, cognitive decline, and brain health. It will provide grants to State and local health departments to build the infrastructure that is necessary to address this public health crisis, and it will collect the data that is necessary to keep pushing the frontiers of what we know about this disease.

I urge my colleagues to support this vital, bipartisan piece of legislation that has the potential of having a positive impact on millions of Americans across this country.