21st Century Cures

Floor Speech

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Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Speaker, I want to express my deep appreciation to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. I was proud to be part of this body last week when together, in a bipartisan fashion, we, in strong numbers, passed the 21st Century Cures bill.

Let me tell you why that bill matters. It matters because of people like this. This is a picture of Rhoda Mull, a woman that I had the opportunity to spend some time with this Monday when we sat together for a period of time, talking about a number of issues, but, most specifically, her life.

Rhoda is an attorney of some distinction. She worked with a major pharmaceutical firm dealing in complex legal issues, traveling throughout the world.

In about 2007, she began to feel a little droop in her foot. It continued to move further up. Ultimately, after numerous consultations with physicians, she was diagnosed with ALS, better known to many as Lou Gehrig's disease, and, thus, began the slow, but continuing, challenge of the ability for her to move about.

But Rhoda, much to the inspiration, didn't allow this to hold her back. Quite the opposite. She embraced the challenge of the moment and reached out to become a voice, a voice for those some 30,000 people in our country every year who are victimized by the disease, Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS. She came to be a voice for those people. It is one of the reasons why what we can accomplish with 21st Century Cures is so important.

Let me talk for a second about the fact that she was a voice. Today this body is very likely to deal with the issue of something called the Steve Gleason Act.

It is an act which will enable the voice recorder that allows Rhoda to speak to be able to be approved in such a manner that they will not have to have these important communication tools capped by a rental policy that has been part of CMS' attempts to try to deal with the costs associated with these devices.

One of the things that we are working on is to allow people to have continued access to these technologies, to see the courage of Rhoda, a vibrant woman in her mind, but who isn't capable of feeding herself or dressing herself, yet is able to speak with me.

Inside this mind, there are tremendous things going on. And as she moved to that voice box and communicated with me, it inspired me to say we have got to continue to fight for people like Rhoda, who has been given a voice.

We must stand here and give her a voice as well, to fight for passage of the Steve Gleason Act today and to reach out to our colleagues on the other side of this building to make sure that we fight for the passage of 21st Century Cures.

ALS is just one of thousands of conditions for which we have no real cure. We have made tremendous advancements in medicine in the last two decades. There is still much we do not know about conditions like multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's.

I have some good news to share with Rhoda. Just last week the House approved the 21st Century Cures Act that will direct money towards research into cures for conditions like ALS.

It expands lifesaving research into conditions that affect millions of Americans, increasing the budget of the National Institutes of Health by $10 billion over the next 5 years.

It cuts the red tape and bureaucracy, just as importantly, that stands between us and groundbreaking new treatments and will help train the next generations of doctors, scientists, and researchers. Millions of Americans with conditions like cancer, Alzheimer's, ALS, cystic fibrosis, and others stand to benefit from this research.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on the other side of the Senate to get behind this and pass the 21st Century Cures Act. I urge my colleagues in this House to stand up today and cast an important vote in support of the Steve Gleason Act.

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