President Signs ALS Association Priority Into LawLegislation Creates Nationwide Registry for Lou Gehrig’s DiseaseCALABASAS HILLS, CA – The ALS Association and people living with Lou Gehrig’s Disease across the country celebrated a tremendous victory as President Bush signed into law S. 1382, the ALS Registry Act, in the late afternoon on Wednesday, October 8. The ALS Registry Act would establish the first ever national patient registry of people with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, to be administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The registry would collect information leading to the cause, treatment and cure of the deadly neurological disease that took the life of baseball legend Lou Gehrig in 1941. The ALS Association has been working with Congress for nearly four years to pass the ALS Registry Act, which was first introduced in 2005 by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senator John Warner (R-VA) and U.S. Representatives Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Lee Terry (R-NE). Thanks to their leadership, the bill passed the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives with near unanimous support in late September. The ALS Association is the only national not-for-profit health agency dedicated solely to the fight against ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease). The ALS Association is fighting on every front - research, patient and community services, public education, and advocacy - to improve living with ALS.
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