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ACTION ALERT ON NATIONAL IMMUNIZATION FUNDING
We need your help!
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU, THEIR CONSTITUENTS!!!
Background
Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) have sent a similar "Dear Colleague" letter to every member of the Senate asking them to sign on to a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee to support increased funding for the National Immunization Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- known as "section 317" of the Public Health Service Act. (Click here to view the letter) The more members of the Senate that sign on to the letter, the better chance the 317 Program will receive increased funding in the FY 2009 budget. A similar effort will occur in the House of Representatives. We will send out a separate alert.
Action Needed to Contact Members of the Senate
- Call your two Senators and ask them to sign on to the attached letter by contacting Senator Reed’s or Senator Gordon Smith’s office.
- You should not contact Senators Reed, Gordon Smith, Harkin or Specter about this letter, since they are the members sending and receiving the letter.
- Let them know why increased funding is necessary for your organization in their city or state. Sample talking points are below.
- Be sure they know the deadline is March 21st.
- Feedback: If a Senate office indicates a willingness to sign the letter, let us know by emailing 317@cgagroup.com so that we can follow-up.
- Forward this alert to your members and other organizations with an interest in this program.
- The following are the Senators who signed on to the letter last year -
| Sen. Jack Reed – RI |
Sen. Gordon Smith – OR |
| Sen. Dick Durbin – IL |
Sen. Maria Cantwell - WA |
| Sen. Ron Wyden – OR |
Sen. Edward Kennedy – MA |
| Sen. Joe Lieberman – CT |
Sen. Jim Webb - VA |
| Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton – NY |
Sen. Bernie Sanders - VT |
| Sen. Jeff Bingaman – NM |
Sen. Russ Feingold - WI |
| Sen. Bob Menendez – NJ |
Sen. Chris Dodd – CT |
| Sen. Evan Bayh – IN |
Sen. Carl Levin – MI |
| Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse - RI |
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Contacting a Congressional Office
- The US Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 can connect you with your Representative or Senator. It is best to call the Washington Office, not the local district office. If you don’t know who your Representative is, you can go online to www.house.gov and look it up by entering your zip code, to look up your Senators go online to www.senate.gov.
- Ask to speak with the staff person who handles the Health and Human Services Appropriations for the office (specifically the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - CDC). Purpose is to ask them to sign on to the dear colleague letter on CDC immunization funding.
- When you reach the staffer, very briefly identify your professional affiliation and work related to immunization.
Senate Talking Points
- I am contacting you to ask that the Senator sign on to a Dear Colleague that is currently being circulated by Senators Reed and Smith.
- The letter is addressed to Chairman Harkin and Ranking Republican Specter on the Labor HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, and asks for an increase in funding for the CDC immunization program so that more underinsured children and adults can receive recommended vaccinations.
- The letter asks that the 317 Program be funded at $802.5 million in fiscal year 2009, which is an increase of $275 million over the President’s Request and over the FY 2008 level. Currently the program receives about $527 million in federal appropriations.
- This is an increase of approximately $295 million over the last fiscal year. The President’s budget request would cut the CDC immunization program in the appropriations bill by $12 million. Currently the program receives about $519 million in federal appropriations.
- These funds are awarded to states as grants to purchase recommended childhood and adult vaccines, and provides support for the infrastructure needed to deliver the vaccinations.
- [Add a sentence or two of local need for additional CDC immunization funding]
- Your office should have received the Dear Colleague letter from Senators Reed and Smith. It was sent out March 10th. The closing date for the Dear Colleague is March 21, 2008. I urge you to ask your boss to sign this important letter to the Appropriations Committee.
- I would be happy to fax or email a copy of the dear colleague letter if that would be helpful.
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