We are thrilled to announce that Representative Jan Schakowsy is the new House lead sponsor of the Lymphedema Treatment Act!
Rep Schakowsky, who received an award at our 2018 Lymphedema Lobby Days and gave an impassioned speech about why this bill is important to her, has been a co-lead on our bill for the past two Congresses. As you’ll recall, our former House sponsor, Rep Dave Reichert, retired at the end of the last Congress. We are so pleased that Rep Schakowsky will be our House lead going forward. On the Senate side, Maria Cantwell has been our sponsor for the last two Congresses and will continue as such.
Bills do not carry over from one Congress to the next, and must be reintroduced. Due to the partial government shutdown, and the time and attention lawmakers must devote to resolving that, there will likely be some delay in our bill being reintroduced.
In light of that, we will be hosting our 2019 Lymphedema Lobby Days a bit later this year, and not in March as we have done for the past several years. We will let you know as soon as we have dates to announce.
A later date ensures that our Lymphedema Lobby Days will be as effective as possible. There are 363 returning members of Congress who cosponsored our bill last year! Many of them will sign back on without the need for a meeting. By giving them the opportunity to do so, we can be more strategic in planning our 2019 Lymphedema Lobby Days.
In the interim, there will be plenty of other ways in which you can stay involved and help. Once the LTA is reintroduced our board will be on the Hill each month meeting with offices, and for those who wish to come to DC sooner we will invite smaller groups of advocates to join us on each trip.
Stay tuned for more information on this and other ways to advocate from home!
Heather Ferguson
Founder & Executive Director
Lymphedema Advocacy Group
LymphedemaTreatmentAct.org
