WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., is urging Senate Democrats to stop obstructing appropriations legislation to fund the Department of Defense and the nation’s military. Wicker’s comments came during a Senate Republican leadership press conference.

“At the Senate Armed Services Committee, we had the opportunity to hear Gen. David Petraeus give us his assessment of the situation in the Middle East. I think people on both sides of the dais could agree that Gen. Petraeus showed a lot of wisdom when it comes to looking at the situation and deciding what needs to be done going forward. Petraeus said that ISIS is ‘spewing instability and extremism over the region and the rest of the world.’

“At this time, we need to pass the defense appropriation bill and get it on the President’s desk. I do not understand why Senate Democrats would prevent us from taking up a bill that was passed by the Appropriations Committee by a vote of 27-3. I would also point out that President Obama sent a budget request earlier this year asking for $612 billion in defense funding. The Senate appropriations bill gives the President that exact amount. So why are Senate Democrats filibustering an attempt to bring this bill forward? It is something our troops need. We need to pass it.”

Wicker also weighed in on Pope Francis’s visit to Washington. The Pope is scheduled to deliver an address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday, September 24.

“I hope that we can show a little more decorum to the Pope than we sometimes do at the State of the Union addresses. It is our hope that we can avoid the dueling ovations – the jack-in-the box standing for this and for that. Listen to one of the most famous and one of the most respected voices on the face of the earth with the respect and decorum that is due someone in his position.”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., today unveiled his legislation to create prize-based incentives to encourage more public-private collaboration in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease and other causes of dementia. The “Ensuring Useful Research Expenditures is Key for Alzheimer’s (EUREKA) Act,” S. 2067, would not replace other funding and research initiatives for Alzheimer’s but add another route for breakthroughs. The bipartisan bill is cosponsored by Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., Angus King, I-Maine, and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.

“America has always been the home of groundbreaking innovation,” Wicker said. “We compete to create, build, and make a difference in people’s lives. The ‘EUREKA Act’ seeks to channel this pioneering spirit through competition to help us better understand, detect, and ultimately cure Alzheimer’s disease. Given today’s budget constraints, it is important to find a way to supplement existing funds to further this critical research.”

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has set a goal of curing Alzheimer’s by 2025. Today, Alzheimer’s is the most expensive disease in America and has a 100 percent fatality rate. According to a report released earlier this year, caring for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias is estimated to cost the United States $226 billion in 2015, with one in five Medicare dollars spent on an Alzheimer’s victim. Unless a cure is found, treatment costs are expected to grow to an estimated $1.1 trillion by 2050. In Mississippi, 12 percent of senior citizens have Alzheimer’s. The number of victims is expected to rise 27.5 percent by 2025, increasing from 51,000 to 65,000.

Wicker’s legislation is supported by the XPRIZE Foundation, Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, Alzheimer's Association, Eli Lilly and Company, BrightFocus Foundation, and the MIND Center at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

“This legislation, which will reward researchers who meet certain milestones in Alzheimer’s disease drug development with cash prizes, will help spur innovation and accelerate discovery of a cure or disease modifying treatment,” said Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr., President and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. “We, as a nation, still must work to make Alzheimer’s disease research a national priority and make it’s funding on par with other major disease states.”

“We applaud Senator Wicker for advancing an innovative approach to preventing and treating Alzheimer’s disease by 2025,” said George Vradenburg, Founder and Chairman of UsAgainstAlzheimer’s. “The EUREKA Act would spark smart public-private partnerships to leverage America's best minds with the great work at NIH in a fiscally responsible manner. We look forward to working with Senator Wicker to advance the EUREKA Act into law.”

“An advance in Alzheimer’s research has the potential both to save millions of lives and billions of dollars for the nation’s public health programs,” said Robert Egge, Executive Vice President of Alzheimer’s Association. “With the cooperation of the medical and research communities, we are at a tipping point. We have the ideas, the technology and the will, but we need a focused commitment from the federal government, including robust support for Alzheimer’s research at the National Institutes of Health.”

“This is a time of great and deserved hope in dementia as Congress and the National Institutes of Health have begun to address chronic underfunding of research,” said Ian Kremer, Executive Director of Leaders Engaged on Alzheimer's Disease. “The Act’s focus on pay for success highlights that we need not only more research but better research, research that changes the lives of people living with dementia today and that reduces or eliminates the risk of people having to live with dementia in the future.”

“Senator Wicker has been a champion for Alzheimer’s research and related public health policy,” said Patty Dunn, Executive Director of the Alzheimer’s Association Mississippi Chapter. “We applaud his commitment to support a robust National Alzheimer’s Plan by cosponsoring the successful Alzheimer’s Accountability Act and encouraging increased research funding for the National Institutes of Health. Our advocates work closely with his office and appreciate Senator Wicker’s introduction of the innovative EUREKA Act and its goal of advancing research breakthroughs for Alzheimer’s disease.”

The EUREKA Act would authorize the Director of the NIH to work with other federal agencies to establish prize challenges informed by the research milestones contained in the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease. Challenges could focus in a number of areas including:

• Identification and validation of Alzheimer’s biomarkers;
• Development of non-invasive and cost-effective early detection and diagnostic tools;
• Repurposing of existing drugs to address Alzheimer’s disease; and
• Development of new tools and approaches to care for persons with Alzheimer’s disease.

An advisory council that would include experts in organizing and managing such challenges as well as patient advocates and industry representatives will be constituted to determine the competitions, while a separate judging panel will evaluate submissions and make recommendations for awards to the Director of NIH.

Prize challenges enable government sponsors to pay only when a prize team achieves specified goals or milestones. Although funds will be authorized and reserved for awards, prizes will only be granted when teams achieve clearly defined objectives, making the EUREKA Act a cost-effective tool to support the pursuit of the 2025 goal. Additionally, EUREKA would permit the receipt of donations from the private sector and from individuals to fund the competition and build the award fund.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., today announced that 200 tickets are available to view Pope Francis’s address to a Joint Meeting of Congress. The tickets will be distributed to Mississippians interested in witnessing the historic event.

The Pope’s address is scheduled to take place on September 24, 2015, in Washington, D.C. Ticket holders will be able to view the speech via jumbotron from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol.

The tickets are standing room only. Those interested in attending should contact Sen. Wicker’s office at 202-224-6253.

Part of my job as a U.S. Senator is to assist Mississippians with grant opportunities. The federal government provides grant funding across a wide range of agencies and programs. These grants help identify our nation’s most urgent priorities and ensure that taxpayer dollars are used wisely.

Private companies and charitable foundations are another good source of grant money, supporting everything from local ballfields and domestic violence shelters to school field trips and reading programs. In today’s tough budget environment, both public and private grants are an increasingly important tool for individuals and organizations to utilize.

Many communities turn to grants for key projects when faced with limited resources. As part of my office’s constituent services, my staff routinely informs Mississippians about competitive grant opportunities and helps with the grant process by writing support letters. In recent weeks, several communities across Mississippi have been awarded grants to improve transportation infrastructure, educational services, and public safety.

New Police Station in Wiggins

One of these communities is Wiggins in Stone County, which received a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the construction of a new police station. The grant will be instrumental in paving the way for the building’s eventual completion. Other FEMA grants have gone toward needed equipment and training at more than a dozen fire departments across the state, and some have offered crucial assistance in times of disaster. After last year’s deadly tornado across Louisville and Winston County, FEMA disaster recovery grants helped with the cost of clearing and removing debris, giving Mississippians a chance to rebuild their lives.

Support for Airports, Higher Education

Job growth is a welcome benefit, too. Airports at Kosciusko, Starkville, and Gulfport recently received grants from the Federal Aviation Administration to improve public safety, the quality of runways, and noise pollution reduction. By upgrading these transportation services, grant funding can encourage greater business investment.

Last month, I was pleased to announce that eight of our state’s institutions of higher education will receive more than $2.25 million through the Department of Education’s Student Support Services grant program. These grants will be awarded annually over the next five years and are intended to support academic tutoring. Such services can help equip Mississippi students with tools for employment, in addition to boosting college retention and graduation rates.

Readying Mississippians for the workforce is also part of the Appalachian Regional Commission’s (ARC) grant priorities. Because of an ARC grant, Northeast Mississippi Community College has been able to purchase four welding simulators to enhance its vocational training curriculum. I led efforts to reauthorize ARC – a federal-state partnership that supports economic development in 24 of Mississippi’s northeastern counties – in the long-term highway bill recently passed by the Senate. I am glad to see its beneficial impact on our state.

How to Learn More

My website provides a number of helpful resources on grants, including details about my e-Newsletter notifying subscribers about potential grant opportunities in specific areas of interest. To learn more, please visit wicker.senate.gov and go to the Grants and Grants E-Newsletter pages under the Constituent Services tab. You can also e-mail wicker_grants@wicker.senate.gov or call my Jackson office at 601-965-4644.