The Office of Congressionally
Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) is funded through the
Department of Defense (DoD), via annual Congressional legislation
known as the Defense Appropriations Act.
For most programs, the DoD
sends a multi-year budget request to Congress in the form of the
President's Budget. However, dollars for the CDMRP are not
considered part of the DoD's core mission, and are therefore not
included in the DoD's requested budget. Rather, the dollars to fund
CDMRP are added every year during the budget approval cycle by
members of the House or Senate, in response to requests by consumer
advocates and disease survivors.
We need to write our
legislators every year asking them to earmark research dollars for
the CDMRP for Lupus.
Here is a link to more
information about the CDMRP:
http://cdmrp.army.mil/
Here is a sample letter you can
send to your congress people:
As your constituent and as
someone concerned about lupus, I am writing to respectfully
request that you vote to earmark research dollars for Lupus
through the DoD's Congressionally Directed Medical Research
Programs to continue the nation's research efforts to identify the causes and cure of
lupus - one of the nation's most devastating,
yet least understood and least known autoimmune diseases.
Lupus is a widespread, chronic, and life-threatening autoimmune
disease that can damage virtually any organ system in the body.
Approximately 1.5 million Americans have lupus and, of
particular concern, is the unexplained prevalence of lupus among
women and minority populations—the disease affects nine times
more women than men, and it is two to three times more common
among African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and Native
Americans. Unbelievably, there has been no new drug approved by
the FDA to treat lupus in more than 40 years.
Lupus is a disease that can be disabling and necessitates a
coordinated national response to ensure that we are doing
everything we can to identify the causes, improve the care, and
find a cure. Please join this bipartisan effort and fund Lupus
research.
Thank you for your consideration of my
request.
Contact
info for congress can be found here:
Write your Legislators
Last
Year's Earmark - 2007, $5 million
