May 2007

Dear Advocacy Volunteers,

The Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Research, Cure, and Care Act of 2007 (PPARCCA) is picking up steam! This month brings wonderful news about our bill. Thanks to consistent follow up since Capitol Hill Day by advocates, National Psoriasis Foundation staff and our Washington lobbyists, we are thrilled to announce that Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., has introduced PPARCCA in the U.S. Senate! This outstanding development is due in large part to the efforts of one of our advocacy volunteers in New Jersey—Steve Bishkoff—whose outreach and tenacity helped to secure Sen. Menendez as our lead sponsor in the Senate. Thank you, Steve!

Now there is another bill number to remember! In the House, our bill, as you know, is H.R. 1188 and the Senate PPARCCA bill is S. 1459. Now is the time to contact your two senators and ask them to co-sponsor S. 1459. Also, if your representative in the House is not one of the 33 who already have signed on as co-sponsors, we still need you to ask him or her to lend support. We need as many members as possible in both the House and Senate as co-sponsors of PPARCCA. To send your senators and representative a message asking them to co-sponsor PPARCCA, please visit – http://capwiz.com/psoriasis/go/alert_s1459 and http://capwiz.com/psoriasis/go/alert_hr1188

To help gather co-sponsors for the bill and generate support for our legislative priorities, CariDee English—America's Next Top Model® and our new spokesperson—will be visiting Washington, D.C., with me in early June. She will meet with members of Congress and their staff to discuss PPARCCA (her own "mini" Capitol Hill Day). In addition, we are hosting a briefing on Capitol Hill where CariDee will share her story about what it is like living with psoriasis, discuss the Foundation's public policy priorities and call upon Congress to boost research funding for psoriasis and enact PPARCCA.

As always, we extend our thanks to you, our active advocacy volunteers, for the dedication and determination to work together to move toward a cure and improve access to care for people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

Sheila Rittenberg
Director of Advocacy

P.S. Remember, the National Psoriasis Foundation will announce the Volunteer of the Year and present an award at our national conference, Aug. 17-18, in Las Vegas. Let's make this year's winner another top political advocacy volunteer. Please nominate your candidate of choice. For more information, please visit http://www.psoriasis.org/community/volunteer/award/.