Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) joined more than 900 people gathered today at Point Pleasant Beach for the 2019 Alzheimer’s New Jersey “Walk to Fight Alzheimer’s.”

The event is expected to raise an estimated $200,000 to fight Alzheimer’s disease.

Smith, a leader in Congress in the fight against Alzheimer's which afflicts millions of Americans, addressed marchers, family, friends and supporters of loved ones who suffer or have passed away from Alzheimer’s. 

The following are excerpts of Congressman Smith’s remarks:

   Special thanks to President and CEO Kenneth Zaentz, and all the leaders of Alzheimer’s New Jersey.

   Every minute, someone, somewhere in the country is newly afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease.

   Today there are an estimated 5.8 million people in America coping with Alzheimer’s.

   Unless we research our way to a breakthrough, nearly 14 million will suffer from Alzheimer’s disease by 2050.

   Over twenty years ago (1998) I along with Congressman Ed Markey created the Bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease to aggressively promote policies to more effectively combat Alzheimer’s including robustly fund promising research.

   I continue to serve as chairman and there are 161 Members of the House are part of the Task Force.

   After years of legislative struggle, the big breakthrough came in 2011, when we passed the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA)—a law I coauthored. NAPA created a new, frequently updated and expanded national strategy with the goal of finding a cure, or a disease-modifying therapy by 2025. 

   The impact has been profound. Alzheimer’s research funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was $600 million in 2015. We’ve quadrupled it to $2.3 billion this year. And within a matter of weeks, we expect to increase it yet again in 2020.