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I have the letter that Larry Hoffheimer wrote that was controversial at the time. I believe that the letter was written in an earnest desire to get the Udall Bill out of Kassebaum's committee. In my opinion what Hoffheimer suggested was very close to the final compromise language that was passed by the Senate. If there was a problem, it was that his initiative was not coordinated with the efforts of others promoting the Udall Bill, specifically PAN and Senator Hatfield's office. As I said in my earlier post, we now have regular meetings among the three Washington representatives of Parkinson's organization. Part of the reason for these meetings is to avoid problems of coordination. I have spoken at length to Ivan regarding the problems he had during that ill fated trip to Florida. He feels he was done a serious injustice. I've spoken to Hoffheimer regarding those events and his side of the story sounds as innocent as Ivan's sounds wronged. At that point, having not been there myself, I decided I could not separate the fact from emotion. I do know that both Ivan and Hoffheimer are both working diligently to pass the Udall Bill. I would encourage Ivan to not mix his grievances with our attempt at curing Parkinson's. Ivan, we need your advocacy efforts again this year. Although I can't join you regarding your grievance with NPF as I can't in retrospect determine the facts, we both know the facts about NIH funding of Parkinson's research. Let's win that battle beginning today. This current controversy is reminiscent of the diverted efforts that resulted when Hoffheimer wrote the original letter. We don't need charge and counter charge. We need letters to our Congressmen. Jim Cordy Pittsburgh [log in to unmask]