Advocacy Alert: 03/15/2005

Lobby Day '05

Lend us your voice!
Make your opinions count!
Please participate in Lobby Day 2005!

Recent CDC studies document that chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome (CFIDS) is as disabling as chronic pulmonary disease, osteoarthritis and severe depression, yet CFIDS is amongthe lowest-funded diseases by the federal government. By joining your voice with others, you can fight more effectively to increase the amount and quality of CFIDS research.

Plans for the CFIDS Association’s 2005 Lobby Day are under way. Make sure your congressional representatives hear the message about CFIDS — that it is real, it is serious and it warrants increased attention and funding — by participating in this year’s event. Newly elected members of Congress, members of funding committees and representatives from your state need to understand the impact CFIDS has on their constituents and the communities they represent.

A mandatory training session on Wednesday afternoon, May 11, 2005 will prepare you to effectively share your CFIDS experience — or that of a friend or family member — with congressional staff members so that they can share the message with congressional leaders.

On Lobby Day, Thursday, May 12, we will carry our message to the halls of Congress and into the offices of key legislative decision-makers — the people who determine how much money federal health agencies will receive and what agency officials will be told Congress expects from them.

Please help to make your congressional representatives more responsive to CFIDS as an important public health concern by participating in Lobby Day 2005 in Washington, D.C. Full details and a registration form are available at http://www.cfids.org/advocacy/Lobby_Day_2005_Info.pdf For further information, contact the CFIDS Association of America (telephone: 704-365-2343, e-mail: LobbyDay05@cfids.org, fax: 704-365-9755).

Hope to see you there!

K. Kimberly McCleary
President & CEO
The CFIDS Association of America