WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Patty Murray (D-WA), John Kennedy (R-LA), and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and U.S. Representatives Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Cedric Richmond (D-LA), and Steve Scalise (R-LA) on Thursday, April 12 introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation in the Senate (S. 2652) and House to award Washington state native, ALS champion, and former New Orleans Saints star Steve Gleason with the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of his work through the Gleason Initiative Foundation to provide individuals with neuromuscular diseases or injuries with the assistance they need to thrive, his advocacy for federal legislation ensuring people living with diseases such as ALS have access to speech generating devices, and his leadership in bringing together the single largest coordinated and collaborative ALS research project in the world.