CALL TO ACTION 2007 #1 (Feb.19)
from Pat Smith, President, Lyme Disease Association, Inc. (LDA)

NEW! ACTION NEEDED
Go to LDA homepage for complete details
www.LymeDiseaseAssociation.org

FACTS
- End of 2006, the 109th Congress ended. All bills not acted upon died including the Lyme bill (HR 3427).
- The 110th Congress convened & on January 31, 2007, an identical* Lyme bill, HR 741, was introduced by US Representative Christopher Smith of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. Stupak, Mr. Holden, Mr. Gilchrest, Mr. Shays, Mrs. Lowey, Ms. Delauro, Ms. Bean, Mr. Langevin, Mr. Baird, Mr. Kirk, Mr. Ackerman, Mr. Grijalva, and Mr. McHugh). Mr. Cummings, Mr. M. Thompson, Mr. Wynn, Mr. McNulty, Mr. Ruppersberger, and Mr. Ferguson have since signed on to the bill.
- referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
- use link http://thomas.loc.gov and put in HR 741 for the full text of the bill.
- HR 741 will provide $100 million over 5 years for Lyme disease research, prevention, physician education and formation of a federal task force.
*identical except for dates which have been updated.

ACTION
Begin to contact all your US Representatives (Congressmen) who are not on the above list of co-sponsors and tell them they need to sign onto the bill. Go www.lymediseaseassociation.org for individual states and representatives. See the LDA website for link to sample phone call blurb and letter on the front page.

NEW FEDERAL INFORMATION
* An LDA representative has met in DC with a number of key legislative offices on the bill and other issues. The response was positive. They all expressed the importance of hearing from their constituents Please call/fax or e-mail your representative to sign on as a co-sponsor of HR 741.
* Additionally, we have received positive communication from the CDC regarding more dialogue and outreach to the Lyme community.

FOLLOW-UP OF LAST ACTION from Call to Action 2006 #7
Groups, please continue to send in the resolution on the guidelines revocation you have adopted which can be found in Call to Action 2006 #7 or on the front page of the LDA website www.lymediseaseassociation.org

UPDATES: ONGOING ACTIONS!
* LDA petition, almost 24,000 signers! Keep getting more people to sign. All signatures must be entered online to be accepted. If you are entering someone's signature, they must have first physically signed a hard copy which you then send to LDA for its files with a note that you have entered it online already. We will not enter any un entered names that are mailed to us, we do not have the staff to do that unfortunately.
* Patients already denied services due to new guidelines, a form was sent out online for you to fill out. If you were denied and need a form, please email Lymeliter@aol.com for the form. You must have been denied services after Oct 2, 2006 with the Guidelines used as basis for denial. Thanks to those who have sent in forms.

Pat Smith
President
Lyme Disease Association, Inc.
PO Box 1438
Jackson, NJ 08527
888-366-6611 information line
732 938-7215 fax
www.LymeDiseaseAssociation.org

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Call to Action 2007 #2
Call to Action 2007 #3