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-----Original Message-----
From: BSCHIRLOFF <[log in to unmask]>
To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, December 10, 1997 11:33 AM
Subject: UDALL IMMEDIATE Action Needed


from the Parkinson Action Network
-----------------------
Urge President Clinton to Fully Fund Udall Act



Call and Tell Your Senators to Sign McCain/Wellstone Letter



November 13, 1997 witness the historic signing into law of the Morris K.

Udall Parkinson’s Research Act.  It was a landmark day for every person

who cares about Parkinson’s, particularly those in the advocacy

community who made it happen.



As big a step as it is, however, passage of the Udall Act alone is not

enough.  The Udall Act authorizes (or approves) the increased research

funding, but it is up to Congress and the President to ensure that the

money gets appropriated (or actually provided).



One way to do this is for the President to include specific and directed

funding in his fiscal year 1999 budget request, which he is now

preparing.  Inclusion in the President’s budget will give Parkinson’s a

position at the starting line of the 1999 budget process, rather than

leaving us having to catch up to the rest of the field.



Recognizing the importance of this early action, the Udall Act’s Senate

champions, John McCain (R-AZ) and Paul Wellstone (D-MN), have drafted a

letter to President Clinton urging him to include full funding of the

Udall Act as part of his fiscal year 1999 budget request (please see

attached draft).  Senators McCain and Wellstone are now circulating the

letter among their 64 Senate colleagues who cosponsored the Udall bill

this year and asking that they join in urging the President to fund the

Udall Act.



Obviously, the greater the number of Senators signing the letter, the

greater the show of Congressional and public support for Parkinson’s

research funding and the greater the impact on President Clinton.  This

is critically important to getting the needed resources into the hands

of Parkinson’s researchers.



Below is a list of Senators cosponsoring the Udall bill.  If one or both

of your Senators is on the list, contact them immediately, and urge them

to sign the McCain/Wellstone letter!  Speak with your Senator’s

Washington, DC office, and ask that someone call you back to confirm

that your Senator has signed the letter.



Please do not mail letters to your Senators, time is too short!  Call

your Senators today!  All Senators can be reached through the Capitol

switchboard at (202) 224- 3121.  If you would like to fax or email your

messages, please contact the Network at (800) 850-4726 for your

Senators’ fax numbers and email addresses.



If one or both of your Senators did not cosponsor, immediately contact

them and ask them to send their own letter to President Clinton urging

full funding of the Udall Act in 1999!  (You can give them the attached

McCain/Wellstone letter as a guide.)



Please act now!



If you have any questions, please contact Michael Claeys at (800)

850-4726.





S. 535 - The Morris K. Udall Parkinson's Disease Research Act of 1997



Introduced by: John McCain, R-AZ  &  Paul Wellstone, D-MN



64 Cosponsors:



Robert Bennett, R-UT                     James Inhofe, R-OK

Joseph Biden, D-DE                         Daniel Inouye, D-HI

Jeff Bingaman, D-NM                     Tim Johnson, D-SD

Christopher (Kit) Bond, R-MO            Edward Kennedy, D-MA

Barbara Boxer, D-CA                     Robert Kerrey, D-NE

John Breaux, D-LA                         John Kerry, D-MA

Sam Brownback, R-KS                     Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ

Richard Bryan, D-NV                     Patrick Leahy, D-VT

Conrad Burns, R-MT                         Carl Levin, D-MI

Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-CO         Joseph Lieberman, D-CT

Max Cleland, D-GA                         Connie Mack, R-FL

Thad Cochran, R-MS                     Mitch McConnell, R-KY

Susan Collins, R-ME                         Barbara Mikulski, D-MD

Paul Coverdell, R-GA                     Carol Moseley Braun, D-IL

Larry Craig, R-ID Daniel                 Patrick Moynihan, D-NY

Alfonse D'Amato, R-NY                 Patty Murray, D-WA

Thomas Daschle, D-SD                     Don Nickles, R-OK

Mike De Wine, R-OH                     Jack Reed, D-RI

Christopher Dodd, D-CT                 Harry Reid, D-NV

Byron Dorgan, D-ND                     Charles S. Robb, D-VA

Richard Durbin, D-IL                         John Rockefeller, D-WV

Lauch Faircloth, R-NC                     William Roth, Jr., R-DE

Dianne Feinstein, D-CA                     Rick Santorum, R-PA

Wendell Ford, D-KY                     Paul Sarbanes, D-MD

John Glenn, D-OH                         Jeff Sessions, R-AL

Slade Gorton, R-WA                     Richard Shelby, R-AL

Bob Graham, D-FL                         Gordon Smith, R-OR

Charles Grassley, R-IA                 Olympia Snowe, R-ME

Tom Harkin, D-IA                         Arlen Specter, R-PA

Orrin G. Hatch, R-UT                     Robert Torricelli, D-NJ

Ernest Hollings, D-SC                     John Warner, R-VA

Tim Hutchinson, R-AR                     Ron Wyden, R-OR





Text of McCain/ Wellstone Letter to President Clinton:



President William Clinton

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, DC



Dear President Clinton,



As you prepare the federal budget request for fiscal year 1999, we urge

you to include funding to implement the Morris K Udall Parkinson's

Research and Education Act.



As you know, this important provision authorizing $100 million for

Parkinson's research at the National Institutes of Health was included

in H.R. 2264, the FY98 Labor/HHS Appropriations bill which you signed

into law on November 13, 1997.



Parkinson's disease is a cruel and debilitating disease which afflicts

more than one million Americans.  People afflicted by this dreadful

disease experience tremors, loss of balance and repeated falls, loss of

memory, confusion, and depression.  Ultimately, this disease results in

total incapacity for an individual, including the inability to speak.

Each of them lives with fear and frustration as they become prisoners

within their own bodies, clinging to the hope that a scientific

breakthrough may soon be discovered and they will be liberated.



The Udall provision will sustain the hope of the millions of Americans

who suffer with this disease by increasing the federal govemment's

financial investment in Parkinson's research and allowing us to make

significant scientific progress.



Recently, our nation's scientists have been making tremendous progress

in the field of Parkinson's research.  In fact, there are significant

indications of a very strong potential for major breakthroughs in

identifying the cause and treatment of Parkinson's in this decade.

According to a wide array of experts, we are on the verge of

substantial, ground-breaking scientific discoveries regarding the cause

and potential cure of Parkinson's disease.  It is imperative that we

provide funding for the Udall bill in FY1 999 and give our scientific

researchers the necessary funding and support to seize this rare

opportunity to beat Parkinson's.



That is why we supported the Udall Parkinson's Research Act and worked

together for it to become law during the first session of the 105th

Congress.  We urge you to include full funding for the Morris K. Udall

Parkinson's Research and Education Act as a part of your FY1999 budget

request.  Millions of Americans are looking to all of us for the

financial support needed to find a cure for this cruel disease.



John McCain                                    Paul Wellstone

United States Senator                        United States Senator















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Date: Tue, 09 Dec 1997 15:58:17 -0800
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