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Legislative
Action Alert
House of Representatives Appropriations Action Alert
Background
The House of Representatives will vote this week on its version of the fiscal year 2011 appropriations bill to fund federal programs for the rest of the fiscal year. If passed, this appropriations measure could impede medical research, public health and training of health professionals.
The House Appropriations Committee recently unveiled a plan to finish the fiscal 2011 bills by cutting $100 billion from discretionary spending. The plan calls for dramatically reducing the expenses for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Health Resources and Services Administrations (HRSA), and other public health service agencies. Specifically, this bill would reduce the NIH budget by more than $1 billion and stifle research on many diseases, including scleroderma.
The greatest promise individuals living with chronic, little understood diseases, such as scleroderma have is a robust research portfolio funding scientists around the country to investigate possible treatments and cures.The Scleroderma Foundation has been at the forefront of the battle to get increased funding for scleroderma-related research from the National Institutes of Health and other government agencies, and much has been accomplished.The House Appropriations Committee's plan goes beyond the expectations of a reasonable deficit reduction plan. As currently written, the plan focuses solely on cuts to discretionary spending. It will force people from their jobs and erode our nation's public health infrastructure, biomedical research enterprise and health professional pipeline. Our elected officials need to examine the entire federal budget as they are considering cuts - not just expenses for discretionary programs.
Reducing our nation's deficit is important for the short- and long-term health of our economy, but cuts to spending must be made across the board, not just to discretionary programs.
If you care about advancing our country's public health infrastructure and the promise of biomedical research to find better treatments and - hopefully cures - to many diseases including scleroderma, please take action now!
ACTION REQUESTED
Please take this opportunity to contact your elected officials. Urge your House member to VOTE NO on this radical spending plan. Ask him or her to go back to Washington and find another way to reduce spending without attacking research into diseases such as scleroderma.
Calling works best. However, you also may e-mail the House offices. You may find information for your House leaders at www.congress.org by entering your ZIP code in the box on the right-hand side of the page.
TIPS FOR CALLING HOUSE OFFICES
Be prepared to leave a brief (60 to 90 second) message explaining that you are calling to ask your representative to vote no on the House Appropriations Committee's fiscal year 2011 appropriations bill.
- Identify yourself as a constituent and a member of the Scleroderma Foundation. Ask to speak with the representative's health care legislative assistant.
- When connected to the health aide (or his/her voicemail), explain that hope for a better future for patients and families living with scleroderma lies in biomedical research support by the NIH.
- Ask your representative to vote no for the spending plan for fiscal year 2011 as called for in the House Appropriations Committee's bill.
- Give the aide your contact information and ask to be kept informed of the representative's action on this important issue.
If you have any questions, please contact the Scleroderma Foundation at (800) 722-HOPE (4673). |
