These senators are pushing for more funding for Alzheimer's research

Here's a story that's all new this morning. All timers. It's a disease that impacts millions of families, robbing people of their minds and their personalities, and it can be devastating for the caregivers. Now, there is an effort in Congress to boost research funding to try to find a cure. Our Evan Kossloff recently sat down with two high-profile senators to discuss the issue. It's rare to put out a request to two high-ranking senators from opposing parties to do a joint interview and then have them just immediately say yes. We actually are really good friends.

Don't tell anybody. Two senators finding a bond over an issue that for them supersedes politics. All timers doesn't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican or a Socialist or an Independent. Both of them have lost a parent to this terrible disease. This is my mom. She had Alzheimer's for 11 years. This is a picture of my father, Don Collins, to see this awful disease, rob him of his mind was really horrible.

The two are co-leaders of the Congressional Alzheimer's Task Force and are pushing their colleagues to reauthorize the National Alzheimer's Project. I rise in strong support of S3036. This was formed in 2011, bringing together top scientific experts to coordinate a national response to the disease. It's set to expire in 2025 and needs to be reauthorized soon. There really is no investment that pays better dividends to the American people than our funding of biomedical research. The pair is also supporting another bill, which would require the director of the NIH to submit an annual budget, estimating the necessary amount of funding to fully implement that panel's goals. Do you think people should have hope that we could find a cure and a treatment in our lifetime? I think you've got to have that hope because otherwise the challenges are so debilitating.

We wouldn't be still doing this if we didn't have hope. And listen, we're in a business that if you don't have hope, it's a pretty crummy business. So on this one, we got hope. I agree. So there's no doubt that we live in a polarized time, but when this Alzheimer's project was formed in 2011 and actually passed through both chambers by a unanimous vote, Collins and Warner are hopeful that we're going to see something similar this time around. And you know, guys, if we continue at this rate, some 13 million people would be impacted by this disease by 2050. That's a lot of people in my family.

It was one of them. I'm actually wearing an old tie of my dad's right here. He passed away just over a year ago. So a lot of people impacted and each of them has a really devastating story. Yeah. I mean, they talked about the hope and I wonder for you, is that something that you still have yourself that there is hope that things eventually will get better, that there will be a cure, that there will be treatment, that there will be something that will prolong life if not cure individuals that have been affected by this. We talked about this, the three of us, because we are in this club that none of us wanted to be in, is that this disease is relentless and unstoppable once somebody is diagnosed.

It doesn't get better. It only goes one way. And so that's why I asked that question. It's because a lot of people can lose that hope and I wanted to let them know, like, do you think people should? And that's when they said that answer, that you have to have hope. Because if you don't have hope, I mean, how do you live with such a debilitating disease? And God bless the caregivers as well and the family that's affected too. So it's so much. Yeah.

Thanks for sharing your personal story. I know that's really hard to do. So thank you. It's a great tie too. He's a big old hippie. So it's a little. Yes.

Yeah. I remember your dad from your wedding and he was excited to see you there and it was excited to see him as well. So Evan, thank you for sharing that way. Appreciate it. If you want to watch Evan's full interview with Senators Mark Warner and Susan Collins, or look over the proposed bill yourself, just text the word, all simers to 202895599. And we'll send you back a link to your mobile device. You can also head over to our website and look at it directly.

That's at www.ws89.com.

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