Congressional COPD Caucus Campai

The Congressional COPD Caucus is a bipartisan group of lawmakers working together to actively push for COPD awareness and promote government policies to improve the lives of COPD patients. The greater its membership, the greater its influence in Congress. As of 6/01/07, at least the following 12 Senators and 38 Representatives have joined it.

AR	Rep. John Boozman	HI	Rep. Neil Abercrombie	ME	Sen. Susan Collins	OH	Rep. Paul Gillmor
AR	Rep. Mike Ross	IA	Rep. Leonard Boswell,	MI	Rep. Mike Rogers	OR	Rep. Peter DeFazio
AR	Rep. Vic Snyder	IA	Rep. Tom Latham	MI	Rep. Thaddeus McCotter	PA	Rep. Jim Gerlach
AR	Sen. Blanche Lincoln	ID	Sen. Mike Crapo	MI	Sen. Debbie Stabenow	PA	Rep. Joe Pitts
AZ	Rep. Raul Grijalva	IL	Rep. Ray LaHood	MS	Sen. Thad Cochran	PA	Rep. Todd Platts
CA	Rep. Bob Filner	IL	Sen. Richard Durbin	NC	Rep. David Price	RI	Rep. James Langevin
CA	Rep. George Radanovich	IN	Rep. Mike Pence	ND	Sen. Byron Dorgan	RI	Rep. Patrick Kennedy
CA	Rep. Susan Davis	IN	Sen. Evan Bayh	NJ	Rep. Chris Smith	SD	Sen. Tim Johnson
CA	Rep. Zoe Lofgren	IN	Sen. Richard Lugar	NJ	Rep. Robert Andrews	TX	Rep. Gene Green
CA	Sen. Diane Feinstein	MA	Rep. Jim McGovern	NY	Rep. Edolphus Towns	WA	Rep. Jim McDermott
FL	Rep. Cliff Stearns	MA	Rep. Martin Meehan	NY	Rep. Joseph Crowley	WI	Rep. Ron Kind
GA	Rep. John Lewis	MA	Rep. Stephen Lynch	OH	Rep. Dennis Kucinich	WI	Rep. Tammy Baldwin
		MD	Rep. Chris Van Hollen	OH	Rep. Marcy Kaptur

If any of your lawmakers have already joined the Caucus, a brief thank you note might be in order. If they haven't, please write them and urge them to join it now. Here's how:

Go to http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/
2. Enter your Zip Code and click on "GO".
3. Click on "Federal" in the top box.
4. Click once on the checkmark in front of "George W. Bush, President" (so as not to send the letter to him).
5. As your subject, type or paste in: Please join the Congressional COPD Caucus
6. As your Issue area, select "Health" in the dropdown menu

I am a constituent, a patient with COPD/Emphysema, and a member of EFFORTS, an online support group for COPD/ Emphysema patients ( http://www.emphysema.net/ ). We are working to improve our lot and that of millions of other Americans with this disease. As individuals, COPD affects every part of our lives, limiting our ability to work, to sleep, to participate in social and physical activities, to remain independently productive. For our society, it involves huge medical and economic costs, and is now the fourth leading cause of death in the United States.

In 2004, Senators Crapo and Lincoln and Representatives Lewis and Stearns organized the Congressional Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Caucus. It is dedicated to furthering awareness of COPD and promoting policies that will improve the lives of COPD patients, reduce its enormous costs to society, and stem its increasing occurrence in the country. The members of the Congressional COPD Caucus have been and currently are working on things like:

1. Medicare: uniform coverage of full pulmonary rehabilitation throughout the US.

2. FAA: approve use of personal oxygen machines on board commercial aircraft.

If you are already a member of this caucus, I thank you. If you aren't, please contact Senator Crapo’s office (4-6142) for more information and then consider joining it.

8. Fill in the blanks with the information about yourself.
9. Click on the "Send Message" button.

That's it! You have just written to both your Senators and to your Representative. And now, please drop a note to fbarrettao@aol.com so we can add your letters to our count. Thank you.