Sheila Jackson Lee: “Let me thank the gentleman from Virginia for yielding and let me thank the sponsor of this bill. Five minutes certainly…”

“Let me thank the gentleman from Virginia for yielding and let me thank the sponsor of this bill. Five minutes certainly will not be enough time to refute my good friend from Texas, but let me start by saying to my colleagues that this bill is about saving lives. Let me say it again. It is squarely, on its face, simply about saving lives. I support this bipartisan measure because it addresses an urgent need, one with which I have had firsthand experience. As a Member of the United States Congress, I take great concern, as we all do, with the individual lives of our constituents. I have had at least two occasions to deal with missing adults whose families have been in pain. Those adults have been missing because of dementia or Alzheimer's. Out of their plight, we have sought law enforcement to be of help to look for these loved ones. This bill would amend the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 to reauthorize and expand the Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program. Across our Nation, there are millions of children who suffer from autism or mental developmental disorders, as well as individuals suffering from Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia. What is the crux of this bill? A few years ago, Congresswoman Waters and myself introduced amendments to the Elder Justice Act and Elder Abuse Victims Act, which reauthorized and expanded the Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program's key provisions.…”