but now -- so that 11,000 was about twice the size of santa ana's army. now the nightly border traffic is about exactly the size of santa anna's army. of course they aren't all armed. very fewer of them are. but we're watching what's going on in mcallen, as we're watching tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors come into the united states and that number was predicted more than six months ago by chris crane, the president of the i.c.e. unit, who said, we're going to see more than 50,000, i believe the number he gave was actually 60,000, unaccompanied minors companying -- coming into the united states in the next year. we've crosseded 50,000 and that number in july, august and september and that number is increasing, we think in the next fiscal year will be 120,000, not this 50,000. and the unaccompanied minors, kids under the age of 18, these

unaccompanied minors represent 20% of the illegal aliens that are coming into america. and those are the ones that we catch. and that's 100,000. perhaps that number approaching 120,000. if they catch, it's a number bigger than that. we have a number that goes to 300,000 criminal aliens to be interdicted in this fiscal year and i think that number will go higher. that is one of those snapshot estimates. i predict, 600,000. this president has refused to send people back. if you are able to set a foot in the united states, get into america, get into the interior, you are almost home-free. if you aren't caught at the border, you almost home-free. something less than 2% of those who come into the united states

who get caught are actually sent back home. and now when you slice and dice that number, that trend is 1/10 of 1% that are faced with enforcement. this is the wholesale destruction of the rule of law. the wholesale destruction of the rule of law. this is a president who has olled out the welcome matt and and sent a message, if you can get into america, we aren't going to remove you from america. he has prohibited local law enforcement from enforcing federal immigration law. they have canceled 287-g agreements, which are operative agreements between countries. he has sent his attorney general hither and gone to file lawsuits against political subdivision

that want to enforce the rule of law and reflect federal immigration law. there is no other law in this country that doesn't ask for, eceive and appreciate the full appreciation, whether they are city police, county sheriffs, state officers, federal officers of any kind, all levels, cooperate at all levels with the exception of immigration law which hack carved out. we have a president, a year ago, sometime in july, introduced what we call the morton memos. and those memos are written in a ar f a -- let's say convoluted legal way. residented by janet napolitano

napolitano. but these memos present four levels of people. they grant an amnesty to people that are in the united states and it's the idea that if you came into america and under the age of 18, you weren't responsible for your actions. some people on my side of the aisle will argue you can't form intent if you are young. i would point out that how young is that, because a two-year-old who reaches a happened in the cookie jar in my house knows they are wrong. and they will act like they did anything wrong. you can't convince me that a 17-year-old can't form intent when a two-year-old can put his hand in a cookie jar and know it's wrong. through no fault of your own, somehow your parents brout you in and now 50,000 kids from

countries other than mexico, guatemala, el salvador and hong did your asare attracted to come here, why? because of no enforcement of the law, no effective enforcement of the law here in the united states. the magnet of family members that have been beneficiaries of no beneficiary of the law. we had a case -- i introduced a law a couple of weeks ago, an illegal alien mother in virginia had abandoned her daughter in guatemala. smuggle a coyote to her daughter across mexico into the united states and supposed to deliver this illegal child into virginia. they were caught at the border. in trouble for

same activities in the past. they brought charges for trafficking and human struggling against the human coyote, but the 10-year-old girl, what did they do with her? they loaded her up and delivered her up to virginia to her illegal mother into a household that was inhabited by illegal aliens. immigration and customs enforcement completed the crime. when the judge rendered his decision, he wrote that that was -- he had a case like that in each preceding week and in the previous month, at least four of those similar cases where ayes completed the crime and delivered this child which may or may not be the daughter,

delivered this child into that household. that message went out all over central america. and if you are owner mexico, send your children to america nd they are coming across. some of them are walking. all of them are subject to being subject to drug cartels and yes, they are leaving violent countries. the violent death rates in guatemala is 79.4 violent deaths per 100,000. u.s. violent death hate is 6.5 per 100,000. how much more dangerous it is. honduras has the highest murder rate in the world, 92 homicides per 100,000. but their numbers have grown in the last couple of years.

they don't show in the violent death rates as being that high. we know by the u.n. records 8-10 of the most vial ent countries in the world are in the western hemisphere, central america. not mexico. america's violent death rate 6.5. and not quite three times that of the united states. but still, if you think of a country that has triple the violent death rate and send their young men here, there will be young men here that will die as a result. i'm not picking on mexico. multiple more times violent south of mexico. mexico is 18.2%. uatemala, 79.4 per violent deaths. and el salvador, you don't get

records because they are so violent there. when you look at their countries. higher vial has a efpblet death rate than detroit. if we are going to move kids out of central america to united states because they live in a violent society, we don't send them to detroit because we would be putting them in a more violent environment than the one they left. coming into america that are getting this presidential factor asylum, you will show spanish language newspaper fplgts. 80% of the unaccompanied minors are mail. 83% are ages 15, 16 or 17.

15, 16 or 17. mr. speaker, i would challenge anyone to go anywhere in the world, i would challenge anyone to go anywhere in the world and identify a demographic group of people that are more likely to become gang-bangers, to perpetrate and prey upon innocence than those that come from the most violent societies in the world. they are south of mexico. nd they are coming here as o.t.m.'s. 17-year-olds5, 16, as the most violent societies in the world and plug them into the tens or thousands and substantially more than that, there is president any rational person that would think there aren't going to be victims in

the united states because of this policy. and yet the policy that i talked bout that i.c.e. hauling the child to be rejoined with her illegal mother in virginia, that happens scores of times, until now. so now the president has his administration that's doing this thousands of times. they are taking these unaccompanied minors, housing them from a lot of places, and putting them in temporary warehouses and putting them on buses and hauling them to places where they can process them and they have a phone number in their pocket, wherever they say a relative or an extended family lives, i.c.e. delivers them there. they pull them in front of a household that might be a crack use or meth house or a

gang-bangers' house. they slide it out. out you go, you 17-year-old unaccompanied minor where we can't deport you back to your home country and dropping you in this environment . there is no checks and balances on this. there is no prudentens to this. the younger ones, other than 14, they aren't even printed. they don't have their fingerprints or pictures taken. we don't know who they are. 50% of them were not born in a hospital so they don't have a birth certificate. no way to track them. we don't know who they are. we don't know if at the we pick them up next week or 10 years from now if they were processed through a warehouse. they kids cannot be spread across this society in this fashion and infused across the

illegal household in america. you grow more lawlessness. it's the pearningts that have abandoned their children and have abandoned their children. there was a little child in my district about three years old, a little girl that walked out of her house during the day. her mother was working in the packing plant at night and needed to sleep during the day. i trust her mother was an immigrant. this little girl wand derd down the block and somebody picked her up and looked around and asked questions and found out she was in this house where the mother was sleeping. our iowa h.h.s. sat this mother down and said this can't continue. you have to got to care for this child. i can't let this child wander off on the street even while you

are sleeping during the day. she needed to because she was working down the night. it is child abandonment and told this mother, you take care of your child or we will take your child into foster care. if you don't shape up, we will put your child in foster care. we don't tolerate people who abandon their children in iowa. but the people that sent their children across 1,000 miles of mexico on the death train, exposed to drug cartels and human trafficking and the kind of slavery and exploittation that takes place on the victims that are coming up here and the parents who sent for them along that path, they have abandoned their children, they have endangered their children, over 1,000 miles of mexico, not a few

blocks down the street in iowa, and we, this obama administration will pick these children up and deliver them anywhere they want to go because they have a phone number in their pocket or address they member rised and pull a van up in front of a crack house and say fend for yourself. should never put those children in an illegal household, never environment.law- they are putting these illegal households is not the right thing. the president can spend the right thing. the president he sent out the advertisement. he sent out the advertisement this government will take care of you and make sure you are living in a house that you have rent, food stamps, education, health care, all paid for by

somebody else. $3.7 the way he wants billion so he can hire a lawyer. hire them a lawyer and now everything that is the dream of every american, own lawyer and government-issued health policy and rent zeed and owe baum ave phone, who wouldn't come to america. that is what this president is doing. . we have a bill and i ask unanimous consent to put it into the record, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. king: mr. speaker, and the title of the bill, and -- it is -- william wilberforce trafficking victims re-authorization act, an amendment to it. and it addresses this topic. the topic is, how we reach an agreement with the countries that are noncontiguous, like

guatemala andal salvador and honduras, to get an agreement to send their children back to their home country. we can maybe direct this out of congress, if you get harry reid to go along with it, mr. speaker. but the president can do this on his own. all he needs to do is call up the president of any one of those three countries and say, you need to be on the tarmac and say guatemala city airport. i'm sending a plainload of your unaccompanied -- planeloads of your unaccompanied minors back. you need to repay the yot them into your country. if you don't do, they'ring would go it froze up the trade. we're not going to be subsidizing a country that won't cooperate and sends their children up here for to us put on the public doll. the president can solve this thing it. wouldn't take one day to solve this. it's taken him 5 1/2 years to create this problem, it's the president's problem. the president refuses to solve it. he just wants more money to expand government and hire more lawyers and more judges. but he has no intention of

resolving. this he's going to infuse tens of thousands, in the end, hundreds of thousands of people into america in an effort to turn texas blue, to do what the bush administration feared would happen if they do that outreach in the first place. i don't believe we should do identity politics. i think we should reach out to everybody and say, you're created in god's image, that's good enough for me. you're one of us if you want to work and earn your way, if you want to pay some taxes and carry your share of the load, because when you shoulder that harness, you make the load lighter for everybody else and you increase the average per capita g.d.p. of our people. when that happens we all live better. but there are now 104.1 million americans of working age who are simply not in the work force. that's going the wrong direction. the last thing we need to do is have tens of millions of unskilled and especially illy the rate people who are going to compete for -- illiterate people who are going to compete for the lowest skilled jobs. this country is going exactly

in the wrong direction. we need a president who will move this country in the right direction. the president can fix this problem he created, he can fix it. this congress probably can't force the president to fix the problem, but the bill that i've just filed into the record takes us aways along that, mr. speaker, and judging from the time, and i want to appreciate your attention and i'd yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. under the speaker's announced policy of january 3, 2013, the gentleman from california, mr. garamendi, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. garamendi: thank you, mr. speaker.

we just heard a very interesting one-hour on an issue that's important and i'd like to bring to this floor another issue that affects every american family. either directly or indirectly, but in a very profound and in most cases a very sad, very sad way. one in five american seniors are affected by this disease called alzheimer's. i know it's affected my family. my wife's mother at the age of 92 died of alzheimer's. she spent the last two years of her life living with my wife and i in our home where we were ble to provide care for her. i think that that is just one

story among the millions of american families that are trying to find a way of dealing with this devastating disease. in her last years of her life, my mother-in-law always had what seemed to be a bright outlook. she was never a complainer and she always seemed to recognize her grandchildren. particularly the very young grandchildren. i'll never forget a day where our youngest grandchild or her youngest great-grandchild was climbing into bed with her and my mother-in-law was what i thought was basketballing. and that young child -- babbling. and that young child, who could just barely speak, was translating in a very real way what my mother-in-law was saying. it was my wife and i that were unable to understand.

just one moment in a long period of time that my mother-in-law lived with us in her final years. this story is replicated time after time across america. one in five seniors will have lzheimer's and will die of it. if we take a look at the well-known diseases that affect americans, here's the death rate. cancer, clearly, clearly a problem. .eart disease, cancer, stroke over the last 10 years we're seeing a decline in the death rate for all of these well-known and devastating diseases.

we've seen the progress of research and the application of medical practices to these diseases. cancer, heart disease and stroke. all declining. stroke by some 23%. hiv-aids, another devastating disease in this country, an incredible 42% decline in the death rate between 2000 and 2010. an here's alzheimer's. same period of time, a 68% increase. my mother-in-law was one of the people that made up this statistic. deaths from major diseases. this is a clear indication of

what happens when the public, acting through congress, and governments, state, local and private organizations, put their shoulder to the wheel and decide that it's time to do something about cancer, heart disease, stroke, hiv-aids. what's happening here? what's happening with alzheimer's? well, part of the answer is the aging population. the baby boomers. that's part of the answer. but it is not complete answer. -- not the complete answer. what does this mean to the american taxpayer and the american families? it means it's a very, very expensive disease. in fact, it is the most expensive disease in america. medicare, the principle source of health insurance for the elderly, one in five -- $1 in

$5 of medicare is spent on alzheimer's. well over $240 billion a year. for medicare and medicaid alone. and where is this going? well, here's where the costs are going. the cost to medicare and billion. n 2010, $122 so what are we going to do here? well, we're going to spend an awful lot of money unless we get ahead of this devastating disease. , king at it another way different graph, same story, the skyrocketing cost of

alzheimer's care. this is not the peak, this is just where we stopped counting, in 2050. baby boomers coming on and then this disease taking hold and literally bankrupting the medicare-medicaid programs. so what do we do? ell, here's what we are doing. a neat little chart here. treatment shown here. this is the medicare portion, this is the medicaid portion. we're looking at a huge expenditure, $150 billion, this is from the center for medicare services. oh, down here. this is the comparison for research. this year, $566 million of research.

extraordinary expense, a lot of research, but not nearly enough to address the problem. for example, back to that first graph that showed the decline h.i.v., research, heart. wonder why it happened? look where we're investing. .ancer research, $5 billion hiv-aids, $2.9 billion. ardiovascular, $2.015 billion. alzheimer's, $566 million. this is a very, very good graph . this is what happens when we invest in research and treatment protocols. let me remind you of what those

investments have meant. cancer, decline in death rate. heart disease, decline in death rate. stroke, decline in death rate. h.i.v., decline in death rate. a major reason for it, investment in research and treatment protocols. cancer, hiv-aids, cardiovascular, alzheimer's. so where are we going to go here? are we going to stay with this? and see an increase in increase in alzheimer's disease and death over the next years? or are we going to go to something that can solve the problem? and that is investment,

investment by the people of america and around the world in addressing this devastating illness for which today there is no cure, there is no way to , and we the progress don't know when it's coming on. until it's with us. and so families across this nation find themselves in a devastating situation. i'd like to rount just one devastating -- recount just one devastating situation, it was on national public radio in the sacramento region. a gentleman from the state park system retired at the age of 65 , thinking that he and his wife would be able to spend their next years traveling, enjoying themselves and the best of the years of work they'd put. in his wife -- put in. his wife one year younger. no sooner had he retire and his

wife came down with early onset of alzheimer's. the result is a devastation in their family. obviously to the lady. she doesn't even know today that she's married to her husband of 42 years. but he cares for her day in and day out, every day, 24/7. there's many pieces of legislation that are here in the congress that deal with this caregiving situation, there's also legislation that would ramp up the research necessary to get at the disease , to fully understand what it s there are pieces of legislation that deserve our attention and joining me tonight is a colleague from california who is carrying one of those pieces of legislation, a woman who has spent her entire career public and private in the congress and

in the california legislature addressing the problems of health care and the problems of the underinsured and the underserved, an incredible woman, who has her own story to tell, let me introduce maxine waters. my colleague from california. ms. waters: i would like to thank my colleague from california for the time and i congratulate him for organizing his evening's special order on alzheimer's disease. i would like to tell you that those charts that you just presented told the story very clearly. it identified the extent of this disease and also laid out that we need to do more with research. we need to invest more in research. but you also showed for those

diseases where we have invested in that they have reduced the death rate dramatically. and i think your presentation needs to be seen by everybody because it does paint the picture of what is going on with this disease. as the co-chair on alzheimer's disease, i know how devastating t can be on families and caregiverers. this is to increase awareness of the disease, strengthen the federal commitment improving the lives of those affected by the disease. i'm pleased that congressman garamendi has decided to take an active hole in the role of the task force and what a great job he has done. alzheimer's disease has touched millions of american families. most of us are probably unaware

of the statistics behind the disease and the significant public health threat it poses to our nation. in the united states, someone develops alzheimer's every 67 seconds. ccording to recent data, women have 1-6 lifetime risk while the risk for men is 1-11. the alzheimer's association estimates as many as 16 million americans over age 65 could suffer by 2050. it is the fifth leading cause of death in my home state of california. right now, nearly 15 million people provide unpaid care for individuals with alzheimer's, a market value of more than 220.2 billion. 1.5 milliona alone,

caregaferse grapple with the disease every day. it includes spouses, children, grandchildren. caregivers face assisting patients with feeding, bailingting and taking care of their medication, their finances and i want you to know that i have friends who are taking care of both their father and their other who have alzheimer's and so caregiving is something we have to pay attention to. we have to give support to these families because not only is it a tremendous responsibility that so many people are taking on, as compared to caregaferes for other disease, they are forced to miss work, quit their jobs, hange jobs due to caregiving

demands and experience hardships, experience emotional stress and suffer from sleep disturbance. introduced the aleds i'mer's caregivers support act last year. this bill authorizes grants to public and nonprofit organizations to expand training and support services for families and caregivers. with the majority of patients living at home under the care of family and friends, it is important that we ensure these care delivers givers have access to the training. the families and communities facing alzheimer's must difficult with the problem of wandering. more than 60% of alzheimer's patients are likely to wander away from home. in addition to distracting from law enforcement, wanderers are

vubblenerble to weather conditions, traffic hazards and individuals who prey on vulnerable seniors. to 50% of wandering aleds i'mer's patients will die if they are not found within 24 hours of their departure from home. to combat this, i have introduced h.r. 2976 a bill to improve the missing the alert program, a small but effective department of justice programs that helps local communities and law enforcement agencies quickly identify persons with the disease who wander or who are missing and reunite them. this is a valuable resource and enables officers to focus their attention on other concerns. nothing could be more valuable

for als i'mer's patients than a cure. we must significantly expand the government's insufficient investment until alzheimer's research. it is essential that congress appropriate robust funding for cutting-edge research at the national institutes of health. the private sector has a role to play as do donations of concerned individuals. a simple way for congress to encourage the public to contribute is to require the u.s. postal service to issue and sell a stamp with the proceeds having to fund alzheimer's research at the n.i.h. this would be similar to the public and successful to the reast cancer research stamp. h.r. 1508 was introduced by now senator ed markey and i'm

working hard to pass it. as we continue to search for a cure, our nation is at a critical crossroads that require action to ensure the safety and welfare of the millions of americans with alzheimer's disease. together, let us commit to take every possible action to improve treatments for alzheimer's patients and invest in research to find a cure. once again, i want to thank my colleague, representative garamendi for organizing tonight's special order. it is important that we do as much as we can to educate the public, to gain widespread support, to make sure that we have the support that's necessary to get more funding for research. you are doing a fine job of getting us focused. i appreciate that. and i yield back my time to you,

john garamendi. mr. garamendi: thank you very much, congresswoman waters. we will very soon appropriate , $80 er $80 billion billion for ongoing military actions in afghanistan. we make choices here. and it seems to me that we need to understand the import and the importance of the choices we make. now that does not include the c.i.a. and the state department and usaid. those are additional expenses that the military will be using at a time we are primebly pulling out of afghanistan. what would a billion of that $80 billion mean to the aleds i'mer's research program here in

the united states. we shouldn't appropriate a billion because you can't ramp up that task. if we spread that over two, three, four years and go from 566 billion to a billion and a half dollars, what could be accomplished? i know in the sacramento valley, university of california, davis, has a very robust and break-through opportunity on brain research. i know in your own area of los angeles, university of california, los angeles, and university of southern california, are together operating major research programs on the mind, on the human brain and how it is harmed, what is it that sets off alzheimer's. we can do this, but these are

choices that the american people, your representatives are making choices here in this house about how to spend your money. when one in five seniors comes down with alzheimer's and we make a choice to spend money in afghanistan, you should be questioning this as to our ralt, are we making the right choice? i think not. let me comment on your legislation, congresswoman waters, your caregivers support act, 2975, i'm thinking what it would have meant to patty and i as we took upon the task of caring for her mother. we didn't know much about alzheimer's and the kind of reaction we might do. it would have been so helpful to us to have had that kind of

information available. and we got through it very well and we had ability to search out information. and we're not unique, but i think the general public who is facing this personal crisis of a husband or a wife and as you said two out of three are going to be women, as they face that crisis, if they had the support that your bill would give to them, here's what you should expect. here's what you can do. here's what you can get help. it's a good bill. we ought to pass it. we ought to pass this bill. congresswoman waters, thank you for doing that. if you want to comment back of how you came to put this bill in, what was the motivation, how did you come to see this from your own experiences and i know you said you have friends and perhaps even family that faced

this situation. ms. waters: i have been saying for some time what caregivers go through in an attempt to provide the care that's needed by alzheimer's patients and you hit it on the head when you said, if only these individuals had a little help in understanding the disease. likely it like, what is to happen, how how you react and get some help. if this information simply was available, it would be a tremendous help to caregivers, but in addition to that, many of the caregivers put their own well-being at risk in so many ways. not only are they oftentimes have to lose time at work, which causes great difficulty, but

many times the caregivers themselves have health problems that are exacerbated because they have additional responsibilities in giving care to their alings i'mer's relatives. i have seen a lot of this and i know the pain that families go through. as i saw my own mother aged and they said, ms. waters, what you are seeing is dementia and i have seen this vibrant, energetic woman, because she lived to be 97 years old, eventually go into a state of being that certainly was not the woman that i had known, that had reared me that had been so energetic in life and the lapses in memory and the inability to recognize her family was very

traumatic and heartbreaking thing to see. and so i want for every family, the ability to deal with this. i want their government to be of help to them. and as you have said, we have got to get our priorities in order. and that $80 billion that you mentioned is a tremendous amount of taxpayer money that is going toward an effort that most of us don't even understand. there's no reason that we should be in this situation. and so i'm looking at this chart, investments in health research, that is shameful, what i'm looking at. only -- >> $566 million as compared to what we are putting into other diseases. and we don't mind the other money being put into other

disease. we want attention to alzheimer's and you made it very clear this evening with the information you have presented. and i want to thank you again so much and i yield back. . mr. garamendi: this chart clearly shows what happens when you make an investment. cancer, h.i.v., cardiovascular. i remember 20 years ago, nobody thought you could solve h.i.v. it was there and it was going to devastate the entire planet. but research, research paid off. and while this disease is not under control and is still all too prevalent, there is a ability to stem the impact of it. and be able to live with that disease. we can make progress here. i'm just thinking again about your piece of legislation, about the kind of help that people need. and really education beyond just what you've talked about in your bill. every family goes through this

in either their own family or a neighboring family in the early onset, early in the progress of the disease. the change in the way in which a person functions and works and interaction -- interacts with the family is profoundly disturbing to the family. even more so if the family doesn't understand and doesn't know what is happening. and so the ability to diagnose alzheimer's early becomes very, very important to the well-being of the family, as you said. if that family understands what's happening, they're better able to cope with a very, very difficult situation. f they have no idea and mom or dad suddenly seems to be off in some strange and unmanageable direction -- unimaginable direction, a family can be torn apart. i know we've seen this many, many places across the people that i have known over the

years. but your bill ought to be law. we ought to be funding those kinds of nonprofit and social organizations that can address and help an individual understand what is going on in the alzheimer's situation. another one, your second bill dealing with the patient alert , i remember very well a situation that occurred years go where a neighbor simply wandered off and it created a community crisis where did he going? -- where -- crisis. where did he go? where is he? after a couple of days it turned out to not be a devastating situation. but your bill would provide assistance in tracking and keeping track of and finding

those men and women that will and have wandered off. this is very much a part of this illness. and so thank you for introducing these pieces of legislation. and my plea to my colleagues here is, let's focus on this. many things we focus on here. all too often it's just political one upsmanship. this is not a democratic issue, it's not a republican issue, this is an american issue, affecting nearly every american family. i like your legislation. i would hope the president would have this on his desk tomorrow morning, would sign this and get the help that people need. there are several other pieces of legislation that are also troduced and i'd like to introduce my colleague, who's carrying a piece of legislation on this matter, and turn this

and yield to him for his exposition. so if you'd care to join us and we'll have it and hear from actually the other side of the aisle. it is a bipartisan one-hour. so please. >> thank you very much. i want to thank you for yielding and thank the gentlelady for yielding and for, mr. speaker, for your time tonight. mr. shimkus: alzheimer's, to your point, alzheimer's -- mr. roskam: alzheimer's, to your point, alzheimer's is a devastating illness and it is absolutely ravaging our nation. five million americans are suffering from it and the cost of alzheimer's is in the billions and billions and billions of dollars. in fact, there's some estimates that suggest it will be in the trillions of dollars between 2010 and 2050. there is some good news and there's some hopeful news that we're on the verge of some new treatments but we need effective coordination to ensure that the money is spent

on research that is being utilized effectively. and the devastating cost of this disease is proof in the numbers. nearly one in five medicare dollars is spent on a person with alzheimer's and other dementias. and this year the total cost of alzheimer's will be $214 billion, including $150 billion on medicare and medicaid expenditures. and this will skyrocket in the years ahead. this is not just a dollars and cents issue. yes, it's very important and, yes, we discuss dollars and cents in this chamber and we all bring strong feelings and rong opinions, but setting aside a moment the dollars and cents issue, this is linked to the health of our families, to the health of our communities, and the burden that goes not just on the person who is struck with alzheimer's, but the burden on the caregiver and

the family that has to come along, it is an overwhelming thing. and frankly it is too overwhelming to bear alone. and so we all have stories of either family members or people that were that we're close to or people that we knew -- or people that we're close to or people that we knew fondly, a school teacher and a sunday growing cher of mine up who was struck down by this disease and to watch her just atrophy over the years was an incredible heartache and to watch her family come around and love her and care for her and do everything they could to lift that burden and to bear that burden alongside her and now we have an opportunity, we have an opportunity in this chamber to do something that's transformational, that brings us all together, that brings a sense of hope and optimism and possibility about trying to wrestle this disease to the ground, what an incredible time

to be -- to see the science come together in ways that transcend normal partisan politics and we can put those things aside and really cling to this notion of giving hope to people. so i want to thank the gentleman for his leadership, i want to thank him for his attention and driving this issue and to bringing all of us together around it and i definitely, on behalf of myself and my constituents in illinois' sixth congressional district, want to be part of the solution moving forward. and i thank the gentleman. mr. garamendi: i thank you so very, very much. one of the challenges that i have on this -- in the house, the 435 of us, and i've never had the opportunity to work with you directly on committees , we just aren't on the same committees, so i hardly know you, but i already like where you're headed. i like the way in which you speak to this issue and the way in which you show your compassion. and i really look forward to working with you.

let me make sure i pronounce your name correctly. ros-cum? mr. roskam: that's right. you got it right the first time. mr. garamendi: garamendi is not easy either. these are bipartisan issues. if you'd just hang on a few seconds. there are about eight, seven bills that have been introduced thus far. mr. harky, who is now a senator, -- mr. markey, who is now a senator, introduced h.r. 1507, that deals with the social security act and makes this illness, a comprehensive alzheimer's disease diagnosis part of the medicare program. there's a bill introduced by republican, mr. guthrie, it's the alzheimer's accountability act. and this one basically says, ok, there's a plan, how are we doing with the plan? what is the plan to deal with alzheimer's research, the support necessary, and would require that a report be

prepared every year so that we can keep track of progress or lack thereof? i like that bill because i think accountability is really important for us. ultimately these will be our decisions. you can jump in on any one of these you may be involved in. mr. roskam: if yuled yield -- if you'll yield. i'm a co-sponsor of both of those pieces of legislation. one authored by a republican, one authored by a democrat. and i think the point is, there's got to be a sense of clarity, we have limited resources here. there is an incredible upside in the outyears in particular if we wrestle this disease to the ground, and that notion of a holistic approach, because that's really what you're talking about. you're talking about not taking a rifle shot, not saying, well, let's do this, that or the other thing, but instead take a step back, look at it in its entirety, let's use the full weight and influence of research dollars and health care dollars on the federal side and leverage this to the best of our ability and if you begin to think that way about

some of these problems, and we begin to think about, well, what is it that brings us together? there's real optimism here. unfortunately people look at congress so oftentimes and they say, why can't you people get along and so forth. and yet they don't see maybe some of this type of work, where we're able to come together and we're able to represent constituents who are struggling mightily under this. so i think both of those bills that you referenced, i'm honored to co-sponsor them and to support the members that are playing a leadership role. one of the things that you and i can do as members of congress is to bring attention to things. and to talk to our colleagues and to lead our districts. and to persuade people and try and bring people together. mr. garamendi: we're doing some of that tonight. there's another one. this issue is not an american issue. this issue is a worldwide issue. every society, every ethnic group in the world faces this alzheimer's. some more severely than others.

but there's another piece of legislation introduced by chris smith who is the co-chair of the alzheimer's caucus here in congress, and this one is the house resolution 489, the global alzheimer's resolution, by mr. smith, and it says it's the policy of the u.s. government to encourage and facilitate the following efforts concerning alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. this goes to the world health organization, other nations that are involved in research, the sharing of knowledge and research. as you just said, we can leverage. leverage what we're doing with what's going on in other countries, certainly the european country, we know china's doing a lot of research on this. and together, the whole world facing a common issue, perhaps we can find a much better and faster solution. mr. roskam: can you imagine what it would be like if instead of waiting for this disease to be -- to wake up

with a slow awakening or a realization that either you've been struck with alzheimer's yourself or you're observing this in a loved one, if instead there is a day that would come in the future where there was a cure for it this? and you're able to anticipate it and say, look, we don't -- you don't have to walk this journey, you don't have to walk that difficulty and that turmoil and bear that burden, there's something that, based on the work that people did in 2014 and the predecessor years and all the incredible progress that has been made, that there is some day in the future, that was sort of pie in the sky talk a few years ago. that's not pie in the sky anymore. that is a possibility. and if we are advancing this legislation that you referenced earlier, the legislation on a global basis that brings in worldwide partners that congressman smith is advocating, the cumulative

effect of all of those things can lead for really a transformational moment. mr. garamendi: no doubt about it. this research going on all around the world, major drug companies are involved, countries are doing their own research, it's all possible. one other bill that i'd like to bring up, this one is introduced again by chris smith , and this is called the pace pilot act. this is a program for all-inclusive care for the elderly which currently helps those over 55. and to provide a continuity of care and prehence of care for them. it's more than just -- comprehensive care for them. it's more than just alzheimer's. we know nursing home care is extraordinarily expensive and this is an everts to try to keep people in their home with appropriate care and support and so this is another piece of the puzzle, together with the two bills that our colleague marks even waters had introduced -- maxine waters had introduced, giving us a package of legislation that we ought to

work on. the other piece of legislation, which is not among these bills, is the annual appropriation bill. last year we increased alzheimer's research by $100 million. a very, very good thing. but, again, we could do much more. and if we were to do that, we might be able -- not might, i'm convinced we would be able to advance the knowledge, the early detection and, as you said a moment ago, a cure for this devastating illness. it's this. the only thing we need is to focus our attention, focus the world's attention on this, put the money into research and then we can see a solution. if you care to wrap, i've had my say on this. mr. roskam: i want to compliment yo