If you live in or know someone who lives in Florida, Maryland, Connecticut, Ohio, California, Iowa, or the U.S. Virgin Islands, please read on; we need your help!!!
Yesterday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the new appointments to the House of Representatives Energy & Commerce Committee. This influential committee is important to the future of the SMA Treatment Acceleration Act, as it is where the legislation currently resides in the House of Representatives. The new E&C Committee appointments are:
- Congresswoman Donna Christensen of the U.S. Virgin Islands
- Congresswoman Kathy Castor of Florida (11th District)
- Congressman John Sarbanes of Maryland (3rd District)
- Congressman Chris Murphy of Connecticut (5th District)
- Congressman Zack Space of Ohio (18th District)
- Congressman Jerry McNerney of California (11th District)
- Congresswoman Betty Sutton of Ohio (13th District)
- Congressman Bruce Braley of Iowa (1st District)
The SMA Treatment Acceleration Act is in really good shape heading into the next Congressional session and all of the sponsoring organizations are working diligently with key Representatives and their staff to make its passage a reality. It was supported by many former members of the E&C Committee, but we now want the newest appointments to lend their support as well.
If you or anyone you may know live in the Districts of these new committee appointments listed above, there are two things that you can do to help make sure they are aware that the SMA Treatment Acceleration Act has broad support and needs their attention:
- Make sure that you and everyone you know in these Districts has taken 30 seconds to sign the online petition, PetitionToCureSMA.com, in favor of this legislation. We've gathered nearly 30,000 signatures and counting to date, but we need more support — especially from these key Districts.
- Write a letter to or call the Representative in your District and let them know that the SMA Treatment Acceleration Act (H.R. 3334) is important to you and that you'd like them to support the legislation. You can write your Representative online by clicking here.
Thank you for your continued support for this important legislation. Its passage will have dramatic impacts on SMA research towards taking that last step in finding a cure and will lead to a wealth of knowledge for many other diseases as well.