April 11, 2022
Please join the Lupus Research Alliance in asking your legislator in the U.S. House of Representatives to sign the “Dear Colleague” letter circulated by leaders of the Congressional Lupus Caucus. Any member of the House can sign onto this letter to show their support for funding federal lupus research programs. This letter is then sent to leaders of the House Appropriations Committee whose job it is to appropriate funding for most of the federal government.
The letter highlights our request to increase funding to $15 million for the Lupus Research Program under the Defense Health Program that our advocacy helped establish. Since its inception in 2017 with an initial allocation of $5 million, the Lupus Research Program has awarded 60 grants that are helping to advance new treatments for this extremely complex disease. Currently funded at $10 million, the additional investment we are requesting is critical for discoveries that can make a difference in patients’ lives.
Use the tools in our Legislative Action Center to contact members of the U.S. House of Representatives to sign the Dear Colleague letter. Requests must be in by April 22.
Last year only 69 out of 435 members of the House signed a similar Dear Colleague letter from the Congressional Lupus Caucus. Certainly, the more members who sign on, the more Appropriations leaders will listen. And your voices can inspire them to sign on to the letter. Tell them your story, what it means to live with lupus, and why new treatments are urgently needed. No one organization can do this alone, but together ManyOne Can!
