posted
Close to 400 of us across the country participated in a virtual "fly-in" today to meet with our political reps to make appropriations requests for FY25 (Oct 24-Sept25) for more federal funding for Lyme and vectorborne diseases. This was the 5th year of doing these fly-ins.
We were organized in small groups with designated times to talk with a rep's staffperson for approx a half hour. We introduced ourselves as working with the Center For Lyme Action to ask for more federal funding for research in pathogenesis, diagnostics and treatment, as well as education and prevention.
Bonnie and Jeff Crater, who run CLA, are sister and brother. Bonnie lives on the West Coast and Jeff lives in VA and is an expert Congressional lobbyist and he guides the group in how to lobby for funding.
There were five asks of 30 million (research, prevention and response for tribes), 5 million (for the federal implementation of a diagnostics search funded privately with 25 million), 30 million (better tick repellents, diagnostics, education and awareness, tick surveillance),
135 million (diagnostics and therapeutics) and 9 million (broad research) - each for a different agency to handle.
That's $209 million we're asking for from the federal government and the amount the federal budget allows for is going up every year due to our national advocacy!
We also got to tell our Lyme/co stories to the staff folks and that all by itself is interesting to listen to each other.
We also had a couple large group Zooms and it was a pleasure to see people across the country working together on this project.
Just to let you know things are happening at the federal level and we're all waiting for some beneficial results.
Anyone can go look at the CenterForLymeResearch site to learn more about what's going on. And anyone interested in helping out next year is welcome. Just let them know you're interested.
Posts: 13127 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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aklnwlf
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 5960
posted
Thanks Robin for putting a note in General so we could see this.
-------------------- Do not take this as medical advice. This comment is based on opinion and personal experience only.
Alaska Lone Wolf Posts: 6351 | From Columbus, GA | Registered: Jul 2004
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