USA advocacy: Ask Congress to sign letter to HHS - NEW deadline Dec. 12

[ahimsa]

I got an alert via email a couple days ago requesting folks in the USA to contact their congressional representatives.

Signature deadline has been extended (again) to Wednesday, December 12

Email text:

Since the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee (CFSAC) was shut down without notice on September 6th, we held a virtual protest to demand reinstatement and TODAY we have a new URGENT Acton for you to take:

Please contact your MEMBERS OF CONGRESS IMMEDIATELY and urge them to sign a bicameral letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The joint letter - from both the House and the Senate- (1) states that more must be done by HHS to address ME/CFS needs, (2) describes the challenges we face, (3) requests HHS to explain how it will fill the gap left by the September, 2018 dissolution of the CFSAC, and (4) poses detailed questions regarding the ME/CFS activities and plans of the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control.

THE DEADLINE FOR OBTAINING SIGNATURES IS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5. Contact your CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES now!

This letter will take the place of the Senate Resolution we had been hoping to pass this year. Given CFSAC’s abrupt termination and other considerations, our Congressional supporters believe that a letter addressing CFSAC, as well as our ongoing concerns about what HHS is - and is not - doing, will be a more effective approach to addressing these issues given the short amount of time left in the Congressional calendar. There is no doubt that momentum for action on ME/CFS is building! Help us take our Congressional support directly to HHS by joining this Call to Action.

Here's the link I found on the ME Action website:

https://www.meaction.net/2018/12/01/contact-congressional-reps-now/

Pardon any errors that I may have made and please post corrections if you have them. Thanks!

Edit: updated deadline, removed some extraneous text

 

[Trish]

I see the deadline for action is this Friday, December 7th.

 

[ahimsa]

I see the deadline for action is this Friday, December 7th.

Thank you!

The email I got had a deadline of Wednesday, Dec. 5th (just double checked because I could have messed up cut & paste). I guess the deadline has been changed, which is good!

I will update my initial post to show that Dec. 7th is the new deadline.

 

[ahimsa]

Deadline has been extended again. New signature deadline is Wednesday, December 12

Folks in the USA, if you can, please contact your senators & representatives and ask them to sign.

The automated tool at this link makes it easy - https://www.meaction.net/2018/12/01/contact-congressional-reps-now/

PS. I'm making follow-up calls today. I decided to heck with my brain fog, not knowing what to say, and feeling foolish when I can't find words or can barely talk.

I'm proud to say that I just called my representative's office. I managed to get the basic idea across (it helped that they could look up my email from earlier this week in their database). The person said they would get back to me by email. Hooray!

Now off to rest and get up the energy to call both my senators' offices.