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American Pediatric Society & Society for Pediatric Research Public Policy Council |
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August–September 2006 Legislative Report |
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Overview Congress will return in September with a full agenda. Front and center will be attempting to complete most of the remaining FY 2007 spending bills. In addition, Congress must complete work on the reauthorization of the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education legislation and perhaps consideration of reauthorization of the National Institutes of Health as well as possibly increasing the minimum wage, making permanent the tax cuts and other potentially controversial issues all before September 29 the anticipated adjournment date. Because of this heavy agenda with limited time and the uncertainty of the November elections a lame duck session is all but assured. The following is an update and summary of recent federal legislative and regulatory activities of interest to the pediatric academic community that will assist you in your advocacy in the weeks and months ahead. We encourage you to share this information with your colleagues. Members of the American Pediatric Society, Society for Pediatric Research and the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs are urged to reach out to their Members of Congress to advocate for key health and pediatric-specific issues. This report includes
information on the following issues: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Appropriations - Overall: The advocacy community
through the Ad Hoc Group on Medical Research requested a 5
percent increase over the FY 2006 funding level for the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) in FY 2007. The President’s FY 2007
budget proposed level funding NIH at $28.3 billion. The
House Appropriations Committee followed the President’s request
and level-funded the program. The Senate Committee
recommended funding the program with a slight increase at $28.5
billion. National Institutes of Heath (NIH)
Reauthorization: There has been a good deal of discussion
about the reauthorization of NIH during the current 109th
Congress. The last time NIH was reauthorized was 1993.
Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), the chair of the committee of
jurisdiction, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has
indicated his strong interest in reauthorizing the NIH and to
this end is circulating a recently revised draft reauthorization
concept paper for discussion and review by stakeholders. The
draft concepts include: a new agency wide reporting system,
individual institute and center budget increases linked to
“shared funds,” new authorities for the NIH director to manage
the agency, new “common fund” to promote trans-NIH research
activities, new special projects program to encourage high risk,
high reward research, new “scientific management review group”
to determine structural changes, and limitation on the size of
the NIH. The Senate has not definitively indicated whether
or not they will move on a bill before the 109th
Congress adjourns after the November elections. National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development (NICHD): As part of the Friends
of NICHD the PPC joined many other advocates in supporting $1.35
billion for the National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development (NICHD) for FY 2007, including sufficient funding
for the National Children's Study. NICHD received $1.264
billion in FY 2006. The President requested $1.257 for the
program for FY 2007. The House Appropriations Committee
followed the President’s recommendation. The Senate
Committee proposed a slight increase in funding for the NICHD to
$1.265 billion. The pediatric academic societies will
continue to seek adequate and appropriate increases in funding
for both NIH and NICHD as the appropriations process moves
forward this fall. National Children's Study (NCS): The
President’s FY 2007 budget proposed phasing out and provided no
funding for the National Children’s Study (NCS). The House
Appropriations Committee continued to support the NCS and
proposed funding the program at $69 million. However, instead of
allocating $69 million in new funds for the study, the
House Committee proposed taking $69 million from the NICHD’s
current budget to fund the study. The child and adolescent
health community feared that such a move might impede vitally
important NICHD programs. In response to this proposal,
the PPC joined the efforts of the AAP along with the March of
Dimes, and the Society for Adolescent Medicine (SAM) to send a
joint letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee advocating
for the continuation of the NCS and for an allocation of new
money to fund it. While the subsequent Senate Committee
report included language expressing disappointment with the
President’s proposal to end the NCS and expressing the
Committee’s desire that NIH funds be used to support the NCS.
The Committee “included funds within the Office of the Director
to continue the study.” It is estimated that the total cost of
the NCS over 25 years will be between $2 - $3 billion. The pediatric and
adolescent medicine community will need to continue advocating
on behalf of the NCS throughout the fall in order to ensure that
the study can move forward and most importantly, that new
funding is available for the implementation of the study in the
year ahead. Further information and updates are available
at
http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov. Pediatric Research Loan Repayment: The
NIH loan repayment program, including pediatric and clinical
research, continues to be a successful and important option for
early and mid-career pediatric researchers. It is very important
that this program – which allows eligible researchers and
trainees supported by governmental (including AHRQ) and private,
nonprofit grants to apply to the NIH for loan repayment –
continue to be well publicized and utilized by pediatricians to
ensure ongoing funding for this critical initiative.
Participants in the loan repayment program must be engaged in
qualified pediatric research which is defined as -"research
directly related to diseases, disorders, and other conditions in
children." The current extramural funding cycle is now
closed. Funding decisions will be announced in August
2006. The graphs below are based on October 2005 NIH loan
repayment data – the left chart reflects the new applications
and the left are the renewal applications. The next application
will open in September 2006. Additional information is
available at
http://www.lrp.nih.gov.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
(AHRQ): The President proposed level funding at $319 million
for AHRQ in FY 2006 and again for FY 2007, with all funds
allocated via transfers from other public health service
agencies. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees
followed the President’s funding recommendation, flat funding
the agency for FY 2007, but the appropriations bills provide the
money via direct appropriations, rather than through evaluation
tap funds. The PPC, as part of a broad-based coalition,
the Friends of AHRQ, supports a $440 million funding allocation
for AHRQ in FY 2007. Advisory Council for Healthcare Research
and Quality: On July 21, 2006, the National Advisory Council
for Healthcare Research and Quality (NAC) met to discuss the
AHRQ’s current research efforts, the status of the National
Healthcare Quality/Disparities Report, and to review the
“Preventing Medication Errors” report released by the Institute
of Medicine (IOM) on July 20. The IOM report concluded
that medical errors often result from poor communication between
the patient and the clinician. Further, clinical
pharmacists should be a part of the patient’s medical home or
healthcare team by playing the central medication reconciliation
role. In addition to discussing these issues, the NAC
discussed market strategies that can be implemented to combat
the growing costs of healthcare in the United States.
These strategies include fostering transparency by providing
adequate cost and quality information to consumers, implementing
cost sharing policies, and providing payment incentives. Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Human
Research Protections (SACHRP): In
July, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) announced the appointment of seven new members to
the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections
(SACHRP). Among the appointees were the chair of the
Public Policy Council, Myron Genel, M.D., professor emeritus of
pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine; Neil R. Powe,
M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins
University's School of Medicine; Jeffrey Botkin, M.D., M.P.H.,
professor of pediatrics and medical ethics and associate vice
president for research integrity at the University of Utah;
Daniel K. Nelson, M.S., associate professor of social medicine
and pediatrics and director, office of human research ethics,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Samuel Tilden,
M.D., J.D., L.L.M., professor of pediatrics, deputy provost for
human subjects research and research compliance officer,
University of Alabama at Birmingham. On July 31, 2006, the SACHRP convened a
two-day meeting addressing a variety of issues related to human
research subjects. Among other items, the SACHRP discussed
a report from the Subcommittee on Research Involving Children
(SRIC) outlining two sets of research recommendations. The
first set of recommendations concerned research involving
children in the legal custody of the state. The SRIC
outlined criteria that should be considered when choosing an
advocate for such a child. The second set of
recommendations addressed research involving greater than
minimal risk but presenting the prospect of direct benefit to
individual subjects. The SACHRP agreed to recommend “when
research presents the prospect of direct benefit for the
subject, the ceiling on risk is determined by whether it is
proportional to the probability and magnitude of benefit.”
Additional information can be found on the SACHRP’s website, at
http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/sachrp/index.html. Stem Cell Research Legislation: On
July 18, by a vote of 63 to 37, the Senate passed H.R. 810,
"The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act." The bill would
expand the number of human embryonic stem cell lines eligible
for federal research funding. A total of 19 Republicans voted
for H.R. 810 with one Democrat voting against the measure. The
House passed H.R. 810 in May 2005. The PPC joined with over 800
organizations in sending a letter to the Senate urging the
Senate to pass H.R. 810. The Senate also unanimously passed two other
related bills: the "Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell
Therapies Enhancement Act" (S.
2754) and the "Fetus Farming Prohibition
Act of 2006" (S.
3504). Under a unanimous consent agreement
crafted by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), amendments
were not permitted and each bill needed at least 60 votes to
pass. The House moved quickly to attempt to pass
both S. 2754 and S. 3504 to allow all three bills to be sent to
the President at the same time. However, although the House
unanimously voted to suspend the rules and pass the Fetus
Farming Prohibition Act, a similar vote to suspend the rules
to allow passage of "Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell
Therapies Enhancement Act" fell short of the two-thirds
majority required. The House leadership had hoped to send all
three bills to the President at the same time so he could sign
the two alternatives while vetoing H.R. 810. The alternatives
were intended to provide a measure of political cover for
conservative lawmakers who wanted to oppose H.R. 810 and claim
they voted in favor of stem cell research. Less than 24 hours later, President Bush for
the first time in his presidency vetoed the stem cell research
bill and the House effort to override failed by 51 votes. The AAP’s Task Force on Pediatric Medical
Devices continues to lead a federal initiative to expand access
to and availability of medical devices for children.
Chaired by PPC member, Jon Abramson, MD, the task force has
reviewed and provided expert advice to several members of the
Senate on potential legislation, including a list of examples of
needed devices. A draft legislative proposal has been
circulating. It would provide incentives to the medical device
industry to produce new pediatric devices by lifting
restrictions on profit from the Humanitarian Device Exemption
(HDE) and creating new consortia to stimulate device development
from idea to marketplace. The bill would also give FDA
additional regulatory mechanisms to track pediatric device needs
as well as provide increased post-market surveillance for
adverse events in children as recommended by IOM. PEDIATRIC WORKFORCEGME Financing in Children’s Hospitals:
The 2007 proposed budget by President Bush recommended a
reduction in funding for the CHGME program by two-thirds, to $99
million. The President also
asked Congress to “reform” CHGME by targeting the remaining
CHGME funding to only children's hospitals that have the
greatest financial need, serve the largest number of uninsured
patients, and train the most residents. The members of
AMSPDC who are freestanding children’s hospitals once again
circulated a letter to the Hill requesting increased funding for
the CHGME of at least $330 million. Because of the hard
work of the PPC, in conjunction with the American Academy of
Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Association of Children's
Hospitals (NACH), the House Appropriations Committee recommended
funding the program at $300 million. Unfortunately, the
Senate Appropriations Committee allocated only $200 million to
CHGME for FY 2007. While both chambers work to pass and
then reconcile differences between their respective
appropriations bills this fall, the PPC will continue to work
with AAP and NACH to advocate for increased funding for the
CHGME program.
Reauthorization:
The Senate and House have both passed their respective
reauthorization bills - Children’s Hospitals Educational
Equity and Research Act – S. 285 and H.R. 5574. They now
need to resolve the differences between the two versions of the
bill and bring a conference committee report to the floor for a
vote before the end of the 109th Congress. If this is
not done, the process will need to start over again in the 110th
Congress, beginning in January 2007. In May, the Public Policy
Council joined the Ambulatory Pediatric Association and the
Academy in submitting a written statement for the hearing record
prior to the bill’s mark-up before the House Energy and Commerce
Committee. Title VII - Appropriations:
Once again, the Title VII program has been a target for
near-elimination by the Administration and Congress.
As in the previous four years, the President FY 2007 proposed
budget removed all funding for primary care, interdisciplinary
community projects, and public health. The President proposed
only $10 million for the Title VII program this includes
pediatric training. As in previous years, Title VII also
faces major funding threats in Congress. Due to intensive
advocacy by the health
professions and nursing education community, the House
and Senate Appropriations Committees rejected the President’s
recommendations. The House Appropriations Committee
allocated $313.3 million for both Titles VII and VIII (Nursing).
The Senate Committee recommended funding Title VII at $63.7
million and Title VIII at $149.7 million. The total Senate
Appropriations Committee allocation was $304.1 million. HOUSE: On June 13, the House
Appropriations Committee approved its FY 2007
Labor-HHS-Education spending bill. The bill provides $141.9
billion in discretionary funding, an increase of $712 million
(0.5 percent) over the FY 2006 funding level, and $4.136 billion
more than proposed by the Bush Administration. The bill also includes approximately $1
billion for earmarked projects requested by Members of Congress,
including $285 million for health care-related facilities and
activities under the Health Resources and Services
Administration. The FY 2006 Labor-HHS bill did not
include earmarked projects. The House bill was scheduled to go to the
floor before the summer recess but with the votes uncertain the
majority postponed bringing the bill to the floor. It is now
strongly rumored that the House may not take up the bill until
after the November elections thus missing the start of the new
fiscal year on October 1. SENATE: The Senate Appropriations
Committee completed its work on the FY 2007 Labor-HHS-Education
bill (S. 3708) on July 20. The bill provides $142.8 billion in
discretionary funding for FY 2007, an increase of nearly $1.27
billion (0.9 percent) over the current year's funding level. For
Public Health Service programs within the bill, the Senate
proposal provides $45.2 billion, $235 million more than is
included in the bill the House Appropriations Committee approved
June 13. The Senate like the House has not been able
to bring the Labor-HHS-Education bill to the floor and similarly
will not do so before the elections. The pediatric community will continue to
lobby Congress aggressively to sustain and increase funding for
child and adolescent health programs until the process is
finished. In this an election year, there is a slight hope that
Congress may choose to help children and adolescents by
providing additional funding for needed and important child and
adolescent health programs. Deficit Reduction Act – Medicaid and
SCHIP: In February 2006, the
House of Representatives passed the Deficit Reduction Act
of 2005 (DRA), by a vote of 216-214.
The legislation changed federal Medicaid law by allowing
states to offer scaled-back benefit packages for children.
The DRA also permits states to charge children and adolescents
in poor families premiums for Medicaid coverage and fees for
prescription drugs and some medical services. An analysis
and updates on the impact of the Deficit Reduction Act is
available from the AAP Division of State Government Affairs
http://www.aap.org/moc/displaytemp/15042006141513.pdf DRA Interim Final Regulations –
Citizenship and Identification: In July 2006, the Center for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published an interim final
rule to implement section 6036 of the DRA. This section of
the DRA requires Medicaid enrollees to document their
citizenship and identity, effective July 1, 2006. At least
28 million low-income children will be affected by this new
requirement. If the rule is implemented, children and
adolescents who are U.S. citizens and meet all of their state’s
eligibility criteria, but whose parents or guardians try, but
fail, to obtain the necessary documentation, will be denied
Medicaid coverage. Following the leadership and comments drafted
by the American Academy of Pediatrics the PPC submitted written
comments to the CMS on the impact of the regulations. The
following is a brief summary of the concerns raised by the
pediatric community: The rule penalizes legitimate
Medicaid beneficiaries if states are unable to locate proof of
their identification or citizenship. Such could be the
case in the wake of a natural disaster or for homeless children
and adolescents whose records have been lost. Children in
foster care are subject to the documentation requirements,
including those children receiving federal foster care
assistance under Title IV-E. It is unreasonable to expect
foster children and foster parents who did not receive proper
identification from foster care services to obtain such
documentation. Moreover, imposing such a requirement is
unnecessarily duplicative because under current Administration
for Children and Families (ACF) policy, state child welfare
agencies must verify the citizenship status of all foster care
children in the process of determining eligibility for Title
IV-E payments. Most troublesome is that the rule states
that applicants and beneficiaries may not use photocopies or
even notarized copies of birth certificates or other documents,
and that only originals or copies certified by the issuing
agency will be accepted. The requirement for certified
copies or originals is both time consuming and costly for
Medicaid beneficiaries. The child and adolescent health
community currently awaits action by CMS in response to these
concerns. While the child and adolescent health
community’s work at the federal level will continue on this
issue, state governments will need to decide if they want to
adopt any of these Medicaid options. The pediatric
community and child health providers will need to persuade their
governors and state legislators to reject the options, and
protect child health care coverage and services. Medicaid Commission - Background:
In May 2005, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human
Services established a Medicaid Commission to advise the
Secretary and Congress on Medicaid reform. The
Commission’s second report will be issued by December 31, 2006.
This report will focus on making longer-term recommendations
that ensure the “long-term sustainability” of the program. Long-Term Sustainability: In
May 2006, the Commission met in Irving, Texas to discuss
ensuring the long-term sustainability of the program. Attending
the Commission hearing were pediatricians and residents from the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. The general
tenor of the meeting was that the only real opportunity for cost
savings in Medicaid was in the long-term care population.
In July 2006, the Commission met in Washington, D.C.
to further discuss long-term
sustainability issues, such as eligibility, benefit design, and
delivery; expanding the number of people covered with quality
care while recognizing budget constraints; long term care;
quality of care, choice, and beneficiary satisfaction; and
program administration. The Commission’s next
meeting is scheduled to take place in September 2006. Association Health Plans: In early
2005, Representative Sam Johnson introduced H.R. 525, the Small
Business Health Fairness Act of 2005. This legislation
permitted the creation of Association Health Plans (AHPs).
AHPs are created when groups of employers band together to
purchase health insurance and are exempt from certain mandates
usually applicable to health coverage, such as requiring
coverage for preventative and well-child care. H.R. 525
passed in the House of Representatives in July 2005. In
November 2005, Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee
Chairman Enzi (R-WY) introduced S. 1955,
the Health Insurance Marketplace
Modernization and Affordability Act (HIMMA), in the Senate. The pediatric and adolescent medicine
community vigorously opposed this legislation, and urged the
Senate to consider legislative solutions for small business that
would provide affordable, but quality health insurance.
One such proposal was S. 2510, the
Small Employers Health Benefits Program Act,
introduced by Senators Durbin (D-IL) and Lincoln (D-AR) in April
2006. After intensive advocacy efforts on both sides of
the issue, S. 1955 failed in May 2006. By
a vote of 55-43, the Senate failed to garner the 60 votes
necessary to close debate on the bill, effectively killing the
legislation. The advocacy efforts of member societies of
the PPC joining the leadership of the Academy, along with other
members of the child and adolescent health community,
undoubtedly played an important and very significant role in the
defeat of S.1955. State Child Health Insurance Program
(SCHIP): According to a report released in August 2006
and supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the
percentage of uninsured kids in America has decreased by 20
percent since Congress approved the government-funded State
Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 1997. SCHIP
expires in 2007 and will need to be reauthorized. The
pediatric and adolescent medicine community will need to work
closely and aggressively to protect this program for near poor
children, adolescents and their families.
http://www.rwjf.org//files/publications/other/KidsCoverage2006Final.pdf Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
Of 2005: In February 2005, the Senate by a vote of 98 – 0,
passed the “Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of
2005” (S. 306/H.R. 1227). This legislation would
prohibit health discrimination on the basis of genetic
information or services. The bill prevents employers and
health insurers from discriminating against a person based on
their predisposition to a disease. Specifically, the bill
would bar employers from using individuals’ genetic information
when making a hiring, firing, job placement or promotion
decision. The bill would bar health insurers from
underwriting based on genetic information. The bill would
also establish privacy protections for genetic information.
Reps. Judy Biggert (R-IL), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Bob Ney
(R-OH) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) introduced the Senate-passed bill
in March 2005 in the House. It currently has 230 co-sponsors.
This strong bipartisan leadership is being leveraged to pressure
the House leadership to finally take up the legislation that is
currently languishing in the House because the business
community objects to the cost of implementation. The
pediatric societies have joined the advocacy efforts of the
Coalition for Genetic Fairness, which was formed to push
Congress to pass a strong genetic nondiscrimination law, and is
actively participating in strategy and advocacy.
EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES FOR CHILDREN (EMSC):
Emergency Medical Services for Children
(EMSC)/Appropriations: For the second year in a row,
President Bush proposed terminating the Emergency Medical
Services for Children (EMSC) program when he released his annual
budget request in February. After intensive advocacy by
the child health community, the House Appropriations Committee
voted to restore EMSC funding to $19.8 million for FY 2007.
The Senate Appropriations Committee recommended a $20 million
allocation. The Future of Emergency Care in the U.S.
Health System: On June 14, 2006, the Institute of Medicine
released its long-awaited, landmark report entitled, "The
Future of Emergency Care in the U.S. Health System."
The report describes the many tribulations children and
adolescents face when seeking and receiving emergency care and
recommends specific solutions to those problems. The
report highlights critical gaps the availability of
child-appropriate medications and equipment, along with concerns
regarding child-appropriate emergency care research and disaster
preparedness planning. The report also calls for increased
federal funding for the EMSC program. The program is well
positioned to lead further improvements in pediatric emergency
care, but it needs to be appropriately funded to achieve that
goal. IMMUNIZATIONSCDC Childhood Immunization Programs:
The President’s FY 2007 budget included $324.9 million for the
Section 317 immunization programs, $4.9 million for vaccine
tracking, and $77.6 million for prevention activities, for a
total of $407.4 million for all immunization programs. The
House Appropriations Committee allocated $527 million for
Section 317, $4.9 million for vaccine tracking, and $82.7
million for prevention activities, totaling $614.6 million.
The Senate Committee allocated $479.3 million for immunization
programs. The President’s budget request proposed a
transfer of $100 million from Section 317 to the Vaccines for
Children (VFC) program to allow underinsured children to receive
VFC vaccines at public health clinics. The Senate Appropriations
Committee opposed the recommendation. The VFC mandatory
program was funded at $1.5 billion in FY 2006. The
President and House and Senate Appropriations Committees
recommended funding the program at just over $2 billion in FY
2007. PANDEMIC INFLUENZAThe activities on pandemic influenza continue
to increase both in Congress and for the Administration. The
Administration’s pandemic plan (http://www.pandemicflu.gov/)
has been reviewed by many and at a meeting convened in April
2006, by the Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and
Senators Clinton, Obama, Dayton, Dorgan, and Harkin, Eileen
Ouellete, MD, JD, president of the American Academy of
Pediatrics attended and as is often the case was the only
participant to raise some of the important issues related to
children and avian flu. These issues included the fact that
first and foremost consideration should be given to the needs of
children right upfront (using the analogy of the poor care
children received during Hurricane Katrina); what happens to
sick parents who are not able to care for their children; what
if schools are closed but may need to be open as an infirmary;
hospitals will need additional staffing if parents are ill and
must bring their children with them or if kids are sick what
will parents need to do Also Dr. Ouellete emphasized the need
that pediatricians must be involved in the early planning at the
local level. Other participants at this meeting included the
AMA, IDSA, APHA, several vaccine manufacturers, ASTHO and
NACCHO. The Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) has
convened a working group on the pandemic that staff is
participating in its meetings not as a member but to ensure that
the pediatric community remains connected to the advocacy that
is needed and necessary to ensure appropriate funding for
pandemic flu. TFAH has produced several brochures entitled –
“It’s Not Flu as Usual” – with an emphasis on health care
providers, faith and community based organizations and one that
focuses on what businesses need to know. Additional information
and copies are available on their website at
http://www.pandemicfluandyou.org/.
2007 PEDIATRIC ACADEMIC SOCIETIES ANNUAL MEETINGPlanning for the
2007 Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting is already in
full swing. The meeting will take place in Toronto from
May 5- May 8, 2007. The Public Policy Council and the
Ambulatory Pediatric Association will present their “State of
the Act Session” on the “Health of Immigrant Children.”
The topic for legislative breakfast will be “Disaster
Preparedness.” Dr. James James, the
head of the AMA Center for Public
Health Preparedness and Disaster Response has been invited and
has agreed to attend and focus his comments on pediatric
populations. Additional speakers for the plenary session are
currently in the process of being confirmed.
2006 CONGRESSIONAL CALENDAR
August 7 - Sept. 4 August Recess
November 7
Mid-term congressional elections November 13
Proposed beginning of “lame duck” session
HOW TO CONTACT
YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS: Write: The letter remains the most popular choice of communication with a congressional office. If you decide to write a letter, remember to be courteous, to the point, and include key information and personal examples to support your position. Address only one issue in each letter and, if possible, keep the length to one page.
To a Senator:
To a Representative: The Honorable (name)
The Honorable (name) United States Senate
United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20510
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Senator ________:
Dear Representative ____: Fax: Currently it is best to fax
and not mail your letter to Congress. Fax
numbers are available through the Capitol Hill Switchboard (202)
224-3121, or you can look up your members of Congress on
“Thomas” the official website for Congress, available at
http://thomas.loc.gov/, by
going to “House Directory” or “Senate Directory” from the front
page. Call: You can contact your Senators
and Representative's offices by calling the U.S. Capitol Hill
Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. If you do not know who your
Representative is, the switchboard operator will be able to
direct you to the proper office. Ask to speak to the staff
member who works on health care issues. Be prepared to leave a
very short message as well as your name and address. You
can also call your legislators in their home districts;
information about local offices is available on the American
Academy of Pediatrics' Member Center website,
www.aap.org/moc. E-mail: All of members of Congress now
have e-mail addresses, but there is no set format for them. On
some members web sites there is a mechanism to directly email
most notably if you are a constituent. We suggest calling
the congressional office to get an accurate e-mail address or
visit www.aap.org/moc the
Member Center website of the AAP. Write: The Honorable George W. Bush The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20500 Call: 202-456-1414
Fax: 202-456-2461 E-mail:
president@whitehouse.gov
CONSIDER JOINING THE AAP FEDERAL ADVOCACY ACTION NETWORK (FAAN) The American Academy of Pediatrics invites
you to become a member of the Federal Advocacy Action Network
(FAAN). Coordinated by the AAP Department of Federal
Affairs, FAAN is a network of AAP members who help support
federal legislative and regulatory activities from their
position as constituents. FAAN members play an important
role in passing federal legislation that benefits children and
pediatricians. The AAP Department of Federal Affairs gives
FAAN members the information and tools you need to persuade your
legislators. For example, each month via e-mail you will
receive FAAN MAIL with updates on AAP legislative priorities in
Washington, D.C. We will keep you up to date with timely
information with “THIS JUST IN.” You will also
receive “SPECIAL ALERTS” when immediate action is needed
by you on a key issue. To join FAAN go to the Member Center of the
AAP web site, www.aap.org/moc,
and click on Federal Affairs, then click on Join FAAN and follow
the easy directions. The Members Only Channel has
some great tools to make your advocacy work easy. Find the
names of Congressional representatives, contact legislators via
e-mail, read about daily congressional activity, view actual
bills and use the media contact list. If you are already a member of FAAN, thank
you! If you are interested in joining FAAN and have
questions, please contact Priscilla Ring (pring@aap.org)
in the AAP Department of Federal Affairs at 800/336-5475.
Together we can make a real difference for children and
pediatricians! Public Policy Council Members: APS
Myron Genel, MD; Jimmy Simon, MD SPR
Christine Gleason, MD; Elena Fuentes-Afflick, MD, MPH AMSPDC Russell
Chesney, MD; Jon Abramson, MD Report Submitted By: Myron Genel, MD, Chairman Karen M. Hendricks, JD, Washington
Coordinator Stephanie Russell, JD. Legislative Assistant Additional information and resource material
on these and other pediatric and child health issues are
available from: Washington Coordinator, Karen M. Hendricks, JD (KHendricks@aap.org)
or Stephanie A. Russell, JD, (srussell@aap.org). Public Policy Council c/o American Academy of Pediatrics 601 13th Street, NW Suite 400 North Washington, D.C. 20005 Phone: 800/336-5475 or 202/347-8600; Fax:
202/393-6137
Please visit the Public
Policy Council on the web at --
www.aps-spr.org August 14, 2006 |
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the Society for Pediatric Research unless otherwise noted. Duplication of any information contained herein for reasons other than personal use requires the expressed written permission of APS / SPR. Last Updated: 01/16/2007 |
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