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Thank you to all of you who wrote to your Senators and Representatives asking them to support funding for Nephrotic Syndrome and FSGS research! Through your efforts, appropriations letters were sent to relevant subcommittee chairs in the House and Senate encouraging them to increase funding for these diseases. Four Senators signed the Senate letter and 27 Representatives signed the House letter.
Background
Each year, Congress decides how much federal funding should be applied to medical research activities and provides guidance to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on what conditions legislators are particularly interested in. Recently, Members of Congress have been deciding on the level of NIH funding for fiscal year (FY) 2017 and crafting the accompanying list of research recommendations. As a result of grassroots outreach, the community of individuals affected by glomerular diseases has educated many Member of Congress who have become champions on research and patient care issues.
House Letter
On behalf of the community, Congressmen Ryan Costello, Ted Deutch, and Alcee Hastings recently circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter on Capitol Hill that voices strong support for advancing research into FSGS and related conditions at NIH. We asked the entire NephCure community to encourage their representatives to sign on to the letter and the response was overwhelming!
Click here to see the letter and all 27 signatories.
Senate Letter
On the Senate side, Senator Debbie Stabenow lead a letter to the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee asking them to include FSGS as a condition eligible for study in the Peer-Reviewed Medical Research Program in the Fiscal Year 2017 Defense Appropriations Bill. Click here to read the letter and see the signatories.
