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I just sent this off Washington. Maybe it will help. I figure it can't hurt. [log in to unmask] July 31, 1996 The Honorable Richard K. Armey The Honorable Michael Bilirakis The Honorable Thomas J. Bliley The Honorable Thomas D. Delay The Honorable Jack Fields The Honorable Newt Gingrich Gentlemen, By now many of you should have received hundreds perhaps thousands of letters and post cards about HR 1462 the Morris K. Udall bill for Parkinsons research. I have traveled to Washington three times in the past year pleading for support of this bill. I have never asked my government for anything and certainly never dreamed that I would need its help to the extent that I now do. My wife has suffered from Parkinson’s Disease for 21 very long years. That is longer than most of you have been in congress. Together we have battled this lousy disease as long as anybody that we know. We fought most of that battle on our own while hoping and praying for a miracle. Despite three brain surgeries, and abdominal surgery to transplant her adrenal gland into her brain we have only succeeded in maintaining the barest quality of life for my wife Nancy. Now at age 51 after twenty-one years of fighting hoping and praying for a cure we see an opportunity to cure this disease close at hand. With a grass roots effort we have secured enough cosponsors in the house and senate, naively thinking that would get the bill moving. The Senate Labor and Human Resources committee recently unanimously approved and included this bill in the NIH Revitalization Bill. This gives Nancy and me hope for one more and perhaps final shot at living out the remaining days of our lives with some semblance of normalcy, whatever that might be in today’s times. Recently I was informed that the House, even with a clear majority of congressman agreeing to sponsor this bill, will not get to it in this session. I am told the House has been too busy and has fallen way behind in their work plans. While I can relate to falling and slowness and tremor and much more in a parkinsonian, I really struggle when I hear our elected officials most of whom are healthy, hearty intelligent and educated men and women are falling behind and slow to get this bill enacted. Every ten minutes someone else in America is diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Every ten minutes and entire family is panicked by what they quickly learn about this disease. I know! I have been the recipient of calls from husbands, wives, sons, daughters and recently parents of those afflicted. These anguished calls of course come with more questions than we have answers for. When I mention the potential of the Udall bill, the conversation changes from one of despair to one of hope. You now possess the power to fulfill that hope. Parkinson’s has been under funded for years. You can correct that now while taking a huge stride toward reducing the federal deficit at the same time. We are asking for $100 million. That is less than $100 per person afflicted far short of AIDS and other well publicized diseases. And a relatively small investment for a potential savings of $26 billion per year. Please put this bill on your agenda early in September. Each day you delay, 150 more people are afflicted. Please help us! Robert A. (Bob) Martone