Advocacy Alert: 06/14/2006 

On Monday, June 12, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) hand-delivered a letter, signed by 7 other members of the Senate, to Secretary for Health Mike Leavitt. The letter requests that Secretary Leavitt renew the charter for the CFS Advisory Committee and respond to the committee's recommendations. The letter is signed by:

   Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)
   Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)
   Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
   Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
   Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
   Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
   Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY)

Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) also sent a letter to Secretary Leavitt on June 12. Shortly after the Association's May 9 Lobby Day, Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-PA-6) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent letters to the Secretary for Health. This base of Congressional support for our requests not only reinforces the importance of the CFS Advisory Committee, it helps demonstrate the widespread impact of CFS and coordinated action of the CFS community to make its needs known and gain respect.

We are working on the final steps to complete a companion letter from member of the House of Representatives and other individual letters from Senators and Representatives may continue. We’ll keep you posted!

If you haven’t seen our latest awareness campaign update in the June edition of CFIDS Link, please visit http://www.cfids.org/cfidslink/2006/pac3.asp and http://www.cfids.org/cfidslink/2006/june-ftdo.asp. The print ad is on newsstands now, in the health sections of the July issues of Better Homes and Gardens (page 225) and Ladies’ Home Journal (page 125). The ad will also run in the August issues of these magazines.

Thank you for your continued efforts to bring CFS to the attention of lawmakers and the public.

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