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Dear listmembers, We arrived home late last night from PAN Public Policy Forum in Washington DC. It was a truly wonderful experience. Almost every single state, and a number of Canadian provinces were represented by advocates - many of them were attending PAN for the first time. We were reacquainted with old friends, met new friends, we learned, we were inspired, we laughed and cried together. One of the highlights for me was havign the opportunity to talk with many other parkinsn list members. I'm sure many of the attendees will be posting more details about the Forum in the next few days, as we digest all the information we received and go through our notes. For now - 2 of the most crucial messages are: - many of the foremost PD researchers stated that their research capability is way ahead of the funding available to them. This fact needs to be made clear to every Senator and Representative in Congress - there is a huge gap between the funding the NIH researchers stated in the Parkinson's Research Agenda is needed to find the cure, and that Congress in the Appropriations bill reports strongly advised the NIH to apply to PD research, and the amount that has actually been spent by the NIH since FY 2000 on Parkinson's research. The Parkinson's Research Agenda must be fully funded. -- S.1899 (Senator Brownback's bill) would criminalize therapeutic cloning (SCNT) research . If it becomes law , scientists researching SCNT for cures for PD and many other devastating illnesses could face 10 year prison sentences. American citizens who would seek treatments utilizing SCNT, which might be availaable in other countries , could also face criminal charges and prison upon returning to their homes. Therapeutic cloning (SCNT) research would NOT produce cloned humans. But it could produce stem cells that could cure Parkinson's, ALS, diabetes, cancer, etc. The House has already passed a version of S. 1899, and President Bush has promised to sign it into law if the Senate passes it's version. It is due to come to the Senate floor for a vote this summer. Call your Senators and urge them to vote NO on the Brownback bill.. Make sure they understand the difference between SCNT and reproductive cloning -- many don't. For more information see www.stemcellfunding.org Yesterday we went to the Senate Appropriations Committee - subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services hearing on Parkinson's Disease, chaired by Senators Specter and Harkins. It was an amazing expereince. The room was packed by PAN attendees - most of us arrived at 7:30 AM and waited on line for 2 hours to assure we would get into the hearing Michael J Fox, Joan Samuelson, Muhammad and Lonnie Ali, prominent PD researchers, and Donald Schneider - a PWP and disabled former radio station manager from Iowa presented moving testimonies, and were applauded by the PD advocates in the room. Sen. Specter noted it was the first hearing he'd chaired where testimonies received applause and it was proof of how crucial these issues are for all of us . Transcripts of the testimonies are at http://www.senate.gov/~appropriations/ More later, Linda Herman ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn