Rep. Engel Authorized the ALS Registry Act, Signed Into Law In 2008

Washington, D.C.--Congressman Eliot Engel expressed strong support and appreciation to Major League Baseball (MLB) for the "4-ALS Awareness" program. This is where MLB promotes awareness with four Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) awareness organizations. The program shines a light on the plight of ALS patients by having Yankee great Lou Gehrig’s immortal July 4, 1939 speech read at all Major League ballparks where games are played this coming July 4. The reading will take place during the seventh-inning stretch, including at Yankee Stadium.

ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a fatal, progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting motor nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Approximately 5,600 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS each year, and it is estimated that as many as 30,000 Americans have the disease at any given time. The average life expectancy for a person with ALS is two to five years from the time of diagnosis. The causes of ALS are not well understood and there is no known cure. Another Yankee Hall of Fame player – Jim “Catfish” Hunter – also lost his life to ALS.

The four participating organizations are: The ALS Association, ALS TDI, Augie's Quest (the Muscular Dystrophy Association's ALS research initiative), and Project A.L.S. MLB.com will also conduct an online auction to raise funds for the initiative.

“This is an outstanding way to get the message about ALS out to hundreds of thousands of people at the ballgames and millions more at home watching on television. The great Lou Gehrig put a national face on ALS 70 years ago, and my own family was devastated by the death of my grandmother, Dora Engel, who is believed to have passed away as a result of ALS in her 50s,” said Rep. Engel

The 11-term congressman, a senior member of the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the ALS Registry Act which was signed into law last year will provide information necessary to treat and eventually cure ALS. Rep. Engel sponsored the ALS Registry Act which establishes a single national patient registry to collect information on ALS, and will help to amass needed data for ALS research, disease management and the development of care standards.