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Legislative Action Alert

SUPPORT AN INCREASE IN FUNDING FOR THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH!

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education is expected to mark-up its fiscal year 2008 funding bill during the week of June 18. This bill provides annual appropriations for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

All Scleroderma Foundation advocates are encouraged to contact the members of the Senate Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee and ask that the FY08 bill provide a 6.7% funding increase for NIH. In addition, please contact your two senators and ask them to encourage the members of the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee to provide a 6.7% increase for NIH.

This increase would halt the erosion of the nation’s medical research enterprise, and enable investigators to accelerate the momentum of discovery for conditions like scleroderma. The 6.7% proposed increase has been endorsed by hundreds of the nation’s leading medical research organizations and patient advocacy groups – including SF.

The members of the Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee are listed below. If you do not know who your senators are, please go to www.congress.org. Phone numbers for all Senate offices are also listed on www.congress.org. Calling works best, but if you prefer to communicate via e-mail, you can do so through www.congress org.

Some tips for calling Senate offices………

1. Ask to speak with the legislator’s Health Aide.
2. Introduce yourself and explain to the aide what scleroderma is and how it impacts you.
3. Emphasize how important research is to improving the quality of life for scleroderma patients.
4. Specifically ask the legislator to support a 6.7% increase for the NIH in FY08. If that member is not on the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, ask him/her to communicate their support for a 6.7% increase to the Subcommittee.
5. Give the aide your contact information and ask to be kept informed of the legislator’s actions on your request.

Thank you! Please keep Krissy Nirdlinger (knirdlinger@scleroderma.org) at the Scleroderma Foundation informed regarding the offices you have contacted and the responses you have received.

Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies