President Donald Trump signed legislation to award Spokane native Steve Gleason the Congressional Gold Medal.
The Senate passed the legislation in June and the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill on Dec. 20.
Gleason, who has ALS, is a former NFL star. His organization, Team Gleason, has made significant strides to provide ALS patients with technology that improves their lives.
The legislation recognizes Gleason for his work with the Gleason Initiative Foundation to provide people with neuromuscular diseases or injuries with the assistance they need to thrive, his advocacy for federal legislation ensuring people living with diseases like 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.
"I am honored, and accept the Congressional Gold Medal for all the families who have been diagnosed with ALS, as well as anyone struggling to overcome life's inevitable adversities," Gleason said back on Dec. 20.
Others who have received Congressional Gold Medals include Thomas Edison, Robert Frost, Walt Disney, Sir Winston Churchill, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) co-sponsored the legislation to award Gleason with the medal.