Thank you to everyone who joined us for the July Policy Forum this past Wednesday, July 26th. This month’s forum featured an update on co-sponsors and meetings with legislators, a presentation by Julia Rivera on State Organizing for the FASD Respect Act, and information on how the FASD Respect Act language has been included in the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act of 2023 introduced by Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA).
Pathway to Law
The FASD Respect Act was referred to the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee in June, and was reviewed by those committees this month. During that time, The FASD Respect Act rapidly picked up co-sponsors thanks to your advocacy and outreach, bringing the total number of supporters to fourteen in the House and five in the Senate.
SUPPORT Act
On July 20th, Sen. Bill Cassidy, M.D., Ranking Member of the Senate HELP Committee included The FASD Respect Act Language in the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act of 2023 (S. 2433). This essentially makes the SUPPORT Act a vehicle for the FASD Respect Act, as the entirety of the bill’s language is included in Section 210. The official bill text for the SUPPORT Act has not been posted on Congress.gov yet, but you can view the bill text as published by the Senate HELP Committee here.
The current authorization for the SUPPORT Act ends on September 30, 2023. This means there is a chance that the language in the FASD Respect Act could be made law within the next two months. Now, more than ever, outreach to members of Congress who sit on the Senate HELP Committee or House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health is crucial. If you want to join us for Hill Day on September 21st during FASD Impact Week, click here to learn more!
State Organizing for the FASD Respect Act
Julia Rivera led us through the steps of policy advocacy. Check out the slides below.
As always, you can view past Policy Forums on YouTube.
