Phone meeting today with the Office working on behalf of SMA in Washington
This is the update on the meeting that just finished.
They said that the fight for this year is not over, but tons of support is needed. We need to have everyone reaching out to their Senators and Representatives who haven't signed the bill yet and urge them to do it, but even more important, they need everyone reaching out to their Senators and Representatives who already signed and are supporting the bill to thank them and ask them to promote the bill in the Senate and the Congress.
There are just 4 weeks left to reach out to them and get as many members on board as possible, however all of them will take a recess during one of those weeks, actually the first week of October. On Tuesday the office that works on behalf of SMA in Washington will be having a meeting with the Committee of Energy and Commerce, where the bills is sitting on and of which Rep. Waxman is the Chairman, so if you can reach out to the members of this Committee by e-mail, phone or letter before Tuesday please do, some of them have already signed as co-sponsors which is great and a great opportunity to try to get some extra support therehttp://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=160&Itemid=61
Also, they believe that having meetings locally, in your own district, is as effective as having a meeting before the Congress and they want to save that expense to the parents and they believe that bringing the children if possible is absolutely helpful.
Rep. Kennedy is retiring in a couple of weeks, as we all know he is the sponsor, the one who entered the bill in the Congress. Election time is coming up and the members will start focusing on this more than in any other issue so is absolutely important to reach out to all of them within these 4 weeks, it's all we have. Also, "Republicans who are minority in this Congress, would more likely win the next Congress, which means re-entering the bill next year and do this whole process all over again will be more difficult, since Republicans are more in the position of not having this kind of projects passed" as I quote Laura Lay from the SMA office in Washington.
Please if you ever receive any response or reply to your letters, e-mails or calls, please let me know so the offices of SMA in Washington, SMA Foundation and Fight SMA can work on that.
Maureen Coh
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