SMA Treatment Acceleration Act Update

04/20/2010

Greetings SMA families, researchers and friends:

Thank you for all you have done to increase awareness and attention towards efforts to accelerate treatment and cure discovery for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). We are especially grateful to all those who have taken the time to contact their Members of Congress in support of The SMA Treatment Acceleration Act (H.R. 2149/S. 1158).

As most of you are aware, for the past 15 months health care reform has consumed the attention of Members of Congress and their health care staff. Now that Congress has completed its work on health care reform, Members and staff are in the process of determining which outstanding health-related bills will be acted upon by Congress before the 111th Congress comes to a close this fall. As Members and staff begin to decide which pieces of legislation will move this Congress, it is important that we continue to engage every Member of Congress in support of the SMA Treatment Acceleration Act.

Thanks to your efforts, 90 Members of the House of Representatives and 15 Senators have now signed on to the SMA legislation. Our goal continues to be to encourage as many Members as possible to cosponsor, with particular attention paid to Members who cosponsored the bill in the previous (110th) Congress but have not yet signed on to the bill again in the current (111th) Congress. A list of our current cosponsors, as well as our target House and Senate cosponsors from the 110th Congress, are provided below. Once again we ask for your help, the time to act is now! PLEASE contact your Members of Congress to ask them to cosponsor the SMA Treatment Acceleration Act.

The SMA Treatment Acceleration Act, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressmen Patrick Kennedy (RI) and Eric Cantor (VA) and in the U.S. Senate by Senators Debbie Stabenow (MI) and Johnny Isakson (GA), provides federal support to complement the substantial private funding that is being invested to find a treatment for SMA. Passage of this landmark legislation will enable scientific investigators to expedite national clinical trials and demonstrate that potential treatments are safe and effective for SMA patients.

THANK YOU AGAIN for your help for all those with SMA!

Sincerely,

The SMA Government Relations Team

Kenneth Hobby	Martha Slay	Annie Kennedy	Cynthia Joyce
Families of SMA	FightSMA	MDA	SMA Foundation
NOTE: If you have any questions about the “SMA Treatment Acceleration Act” or for more information, please feel free to contact any one of our Government Affairs staff:
Spencer Perlman	Caroline Gibson	David Miller	Laura Lay
Families of SMA	FightSMA	MDA	SMA Foundation
spencer@fsma.org	carolinegibson@fightsma.com	dmiller@mdausa.org	llay@wswdc.co

111TH CONGRESS COSPONSORS

In the House (90)

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (RI) Sponsor
Rep. Rodney Alexander (LA)
Rep. Spencer Bachus (AL)
Rep. Sanford Bishop (GA)
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR)
Rep. Rick Boucher (VA)
Rep. G.K. Butterfield (NC)
Rep. Christopher Carney (PA)
Rep. Donna Christensen (VI)
Rep. Jim Cooper (TN)
Rep. Steve Driehaus (OH)
Rep. Anna Eshoo (CA)
Rep. Randy Forbes (VA)
Rep. Barney Frank (MA)
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (VA)
Rep. Gene Green (TX)
Rep. Ralph Hall (TX)
Rep. Martin Heinrich (NM)
Rep. Brian Higgins (NY)
Rep. Tim Holden (PA)
Rep. Henry Johnson (GA)
Rep. Steve Kagen (WI)
Rep. Ron Kind (WI)
Rep. James Langevin (RI)
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (CA)
Rep. Edward Markey (MA)
Rep. Michael McCaul (TX)
Rep. Mike McIntyre (NC)
Rep. Gregory Meeks (NY)
Rep. Tim Murphy (PA)
Rep. Grace Napolitano (CA)
Rep. Collin Peterson (MN)
Rep. Ted Poe (TX)
Rep. Adam Putnam (FL)
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL)
Rep. Bobby Rush (IL)
Rep. Bobby Scott (VA)
Rep. Albio Sires (NJ)
Rep. Jackie Speier (CA)
Rep. Bennie Thompson (MS)
Rep. Paul Tonko (NY)
Rep. Fred Upton (MI)
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (GA)
Rep. Joe Wilson (SC)
Rep. Frank Wolf (VA)
Rep. C.W. Bill Young (FL)

Rep. Eric Cantor (VA) Sponsor
Rep. Jason Altmire (PA)
Rep. Tammy Baldwin (WI)
Rep. Timothy Bishop (NY)
Rep. Dan Boren (OK)
Rep. Bruce Braley (IA)
Rep. Lois Capps (CA)
Rep. Kathy Castor (FL)
Rep. Yvette Clarke (NY)
Rep. Charles Dent (PA)
Rep. Keith Ellison (MN)
Rep. John Fleming (LA)
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (NE)
Rep. John Garamendi (CA)
Rep. Bart Gordon (TN)
Rep. John Hall (NY)
Rep. Gregg Harper (MS)
Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD)
Rep. James Himes (CT)
Rep. Steve Israel (NY)
Rep. Walter Jones (NC)
Rep. Dale Kildee (MI)
Rep. Peter King (NY)
Rep. Barbara Lee (CA)
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY)
Rep. Eric Massa (NY)
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (MI)
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA)
Rep. James Moran (VA)
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY)
Rep. Glenn Nye (VA)
Rep. Joseph Pitts (PA)
Rep. Tom Price (GA)
Rep. Harold Rogers (KY)
Rep. Steve Rothman (NJ)
Rep. Gregorio Sablan (MP)
Rep. Joe Sestak (PA)
Rep. Louise McIntosh Slaughter (NY)
Rep. Fortney Pete Stark (CA)
Rep. Patrick Tiberi (OH)
Rep. Edolphus Towns (NY)
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL)
Rep. Charles Wilson (OH)
Rep. Robert Wittman (VA)
Rep. David Wu (OR)

In the Senate (15):

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (MI) Sponsor
Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH)
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (GA)
Sen. Kay Hagan (NC)
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (NJ)
Sen. Patty Murray (WA)
Sen. Bernard Sanders (VT)
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)

Sen. Johnny Isakson (GA) Sponsor
Sen. Richard Burr (NC)
Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (NY)
Sen. John Kerry (MA)
Sen. Robert Menendez (NJ)
Sen. Jack Reed (RI)
Sen. Arlen Specter (PA)
Sen. Roger Wicker (MS)

110TH CONGRESS CO-SPONSORS TARGETS

House
Rep. Brian Baird (WA)
Rep. Norman Dicks (WA)
Rep Peter Hoekstra (MI)
Rep. Jay Inslee (WA)
Rep. Jack Kingston (GA)
Rep. Mark Kirk (IL)
Rep. Nita Lowey (NY)
Rep. Jim Marshall (GA)
Rep. Candice Miller (MI)
Rep. Donald Payne (NJ)
Rep. David Price (NC)
Rep. Mike Ross (AR)
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA)
Rep. Tim Ryan (OH)
Rep. Cliff Stearns (FL)
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (CA)

Senate
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (NM)
Sen. Barbara Boxer (CA)
Sen. Maria Cantwell (WA)
Sen. Robert Casey (PA)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (CA)
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (CT)
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (MD)
Sen. Jim Webb (VA)

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