AARC Support For Funding Issues Pays Off For Sleep, NCHS

Main Category: Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 14 Jul 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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Congress is in the process of putting together the 2008 federal budget, an appropriations process that covers all the federal government agencies and the many programs under each agency's umbrella.

The AARC is specifically supporting increased funding for sleep research and sleep disorders activities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and increased funding for both the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Several weeks ago we alerted members to contact their representatives on Capitol Hill asking for increased funding support of these important programs and agencies. You responded, and we recently reported success on the NIH funding issue in this article published on June 26.

Now we have more success to report. Thanks to you and other sleep coalition partners, the House of Representatives has approved an additional $1 million in CDC sleep research. That is the good news. The not so good news is that the Senate has yet to include this increase in funding. For the funding to make it into the final budget, both the House and Senate must conference and agree on a dollar figure.

We are asking you to contact your Senators either by phone or e-mail to request that the FY 2008 HHS Appropriations Conference Report include $1 million for sleep programs at the CDC, as provided in the House version of the bill.

To reach your Senators by telephone, call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. Ask for your Senators by name, or if you are unsure of your Senators' names, ask for them by state. Once you are connected to your Senator's office, ask to speak to the Senator's health legislative assistant.

If the staff member is unavailable, leave a voice mail with your name, hometown, reason for calling, and a number where the staff member can return your call. If you are able to speak directly with the staff member, specifically say: "I ask that you support $1 million for sleep programs at the CDC in the HHS Appropriations Conference Report as provided in the House bill."

To contact your Senators by e-mail go to the Senate web site and click on the bar that says "Senators." That will provide you with a link to each member's web site.

As for the NCHS funding issue, we are happy to report a significant "win." AARC and its partners in the Coalition for Health Services Research had asked for a $7 million increase in 2008, and we were more than pleased when the House Appropriations Committee approved an $11 million increase, $3 million more than what we had hoped for. We again thank you for your support of this important funding issue.

http://www.aarc.org

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