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Subject: UDALL BILL It seems to us that legislators are not always likely to respond to appeals from people who are not their constituents so... The Office of Representative Steven R. Rothman, (newly elected) 9th District, NJ, has put together a 4-paragraph response to a request for support of the Udall bill. We don't doubt that he's well meaning but he appears to be totally uninformed about PD and that's our fault. His letter is certainly non-committal. Are there any voters in his district reading this who can send educational materials, eg, the PAN package, to him, and follow up?. We're not in her District but wrote anyway, and haven't had a response to a letter sent to Representative Marge Roukema of the 5th District in NJ. Several years ago her Party leadership adamantly opposed legislation which when passed and signed by President Clinton, after an 8-year battle, became known as The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. Although she did not favor the bill early on, once being convinced of its merits she was tenacious and a lone minority of one in her party fighting for passage of the bill. She did not vote for or against the Udall bill in the 104th and we think that if she knew more about it she would support it. in addition to educational materials, contacts with her particularly by younger PD people, (who are not generally known to be susceptible to PD) would help to influence her favorably. This in turn might encourage her to help influence other social issue moderates in the House who have not taken a position on the Udall bill. Anyone? We spoke to Joe Fiordaliso of Senator Torricelli's office. They haven't chosen a health issues aide yet; the senator has not seen a copy of the Udall bill which will be introduced in the 105th (because the final draft has not been completed) and so even though he co-sponsored last year, we don't know his position this year. Keep those calls and letters going. Having the ability and the means to communicate with each other in this manner is mind boggling to those of us who are new at it. Can we, in addition to continuing to do this, agree that each and every one of us will try, via the dissemination of information, and personal contact, to communicate with those outside of the Parkinson community, in organizations, the media, etc., at least one contact a day, until the Udall bill has been voted on? 2-24-97