ACTION ALERT: A Community United for CHD

Encourage your members of Congress to support congenital heart disease research – call or email them, today.

On February 26, 2015, congenital heart disease (CHD) advocates from across the country, representing more than 10 organizations are reaching out to their lawmakers to ask for three things:

• Provide $10.0 million in FY2016 to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center on Birth Defects and Disabilities to support surveillance and public health research to build upon current activities to better understand the public health impact of congenital heart disease across the lifespan.
• Support the National Institutes of Health’s efforts to develop innovative and cost effective treatment options for those living with congenital heart disease.
• Continue robust funding of the Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Medical Program to help lessen the disparate research funding of the most common and costly birth defects.

Members can support these activities today by:

• Signing the Congenital Heart Dear Colleague Letter.
• Joining the Congressional Congenital Heart Caucus.
• Submitting a Congenital Heart Appropriations Request.

Add your message – make our voice stronger!

Our mission is simple: to Conquer Congenital Heart Disease.  In order to do this, we need research and data collection for children with congenital heart disease.

Send an email today to encourage your members to support federal funding for research and surveillance.

Take action in three easy steps:

1) Find your legislator’s contact information.

• If this is your first time reaching out, use the contact form on the legislator’s website to send your email. Visit senate.org or house.org
• If you have identified the Health LA, or had a previous contact with your member or a member of their staff, please feel free to use the direct phone or email address you were given.

2) Copy and paste the paragraph below – adding your own personal story. or use the following script: My name is ____, from (City,State) and I am calling on behalf of the Conquering CHD to ask that Senator/Representative _______ support congenital heart disease public health research and surveillance at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

3) Send it!

You did it!  If you successfully connect with your legislator or their office, let us know you made contact by completing our online form available here.

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Sample Letter:

Subject: Support Congenital Heart Disease Research

Dear Senator/Congressman (or staff) [Fill in name here]

I’m writing to urge you to support federal research and surveillance for the most common birth defect.

Every 15 minutes, a baby is born with congenital heart disease, the most common birth defect and leading cause of birth defect related infant death.  Even for those who receive successful intervention, it is not a cure. Children and adults with congenital heart disease require ongoing, costly, specialized cardiac care and face a lifelong risk of permanent disability and premature death. As a result, healthcare utilization among the congenital heart disease population is significantly higher than the general population.

[Insert your story here]

Continued federal investment is necessary to provide rigorous epidemiological and longitudinal public health surveillance and public health research on infants, children, adolescents and adults to better understand congenital heart disease at every age, improve outcomes and reduce costs.

We urge Congress to:

• Provide $10.0 million in FY2016 to the Center for Disease Control’s National Center on Birth Defects and Disabilities to support surveillance and public health research in order to build upon current activities to better understand the public health impact of congenital heart disease across the lifespan
• Support the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s efforts to develop innovative and cost effective treatment options for those living with congenital heart disease
• Continue robust funding of the Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program to help lessen the disparate research funding of the most common and costly birth defects, congenital heart defects.

You can demonstrate your support by:

• Signing the Congenital Heart Dear Colleague Letter,
• Joining the Congressional Congenital Heart Caucus
• Submitting a congenital heart appropriations request.

If you would like any additional information or sample report language, please contact Amy Basken at abasken@conqueringchd.org.

Thank you-

[Your Name – your city/state]