HR. 3946, the FASD Respect has just gained three new co-sponsors from three separate states. Rep. William Keating [D-MA-9], Rep. Doug LaMalfa [R-CA-1], and Rep. August Pfluger [R-TX-11] all officially co-sponsored as of November 13th, bringing the total number of co-sponsors for HR. 3946 to 43, which includes original sponsor and author Rep. Don Bacon [R-NE-2].
Of the three new co-sponsors, Rep. Pfluger is the only one who co-sponsored during the 117th Congress, while Rep. Keating is the first legislator from Massachusetts to co-sponsor any form of the FASD Respect Act. Advocates who traveled to Washington, DC for National FASD Impact Week in September met with Rep. Pfluger and Rep. Lamalfa, which surely played a crucial role in securing their support for the FASD Respect Act.
Our goal is to continue to reach out to key legislators in both the House and Senate, while expanding the capacity of FASD United to support your advocacy efforts. On the Senate side, we are prioritizing meetings with the following states: Arkansas, Alaska, California, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Washington. While we are reaching out to the Senators from these states, sometimes the Senators’ offices are more likely to positively respond to requests for meetings when constituents of their states also request meetings.
There are two ways you can go about requesting meetings with your Senators or Representative: you can use the “contact me” portion of their website to request an in person or virtual meeting, or you can email melfi@fasdunited.org and we can let you know if we have an email address for a staffer that handles health issues for the legislator. Whichever option you choose, FASD United is happy to help you throughout the process. We can walk you through the process step by step, attend meetings with you, hold practice calls, provide specifics on the FASD Respect Act, or just answer any questions you might have.
For the House of Representatives, we are continuing to focus on members of the Health Subcomittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee. This is important because the members of that committee are able to include the language from the FASD Respect Act in a markup of the SUPPORT Act, which we see as a viable vehicle for the bill. If you would like to see a listing of this subcommittee’s members click here. If you want to find out who your Representative in Congress is click here.
