This section contains activity which Members of Congress or Congressional Committees or Caucuses are undertaking relative to tick-borne diseases.
News from Congressman Chris Smith website: The House of Representatives passed an amendment authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) which increases Lyme disease research funding by $4 million, for a total of $20 million, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for fiscal year 2021. The amendment, which passed July 30th, has been […]
In a complex government process, the Tick Act–a bill that provides funding for Vector-Borne Diseases including Lyme – was not fully funded according to the Committee report on HHS. The Committee report has 16M for Lyme and 38M for vector-borne diseases. (NOTE: as LDA has mentioned in prior information on the Tick Act, it is […]
Update: The Bill and passed amendments such as this one (below) has now moved to the conference committee where the House and Senate will work to decide what language goes into the final product. The LDA provided input into the amendment language and has been working to get Senators to champion the inclusion of this GAO Investigation Amendment into the final bill.
On April 9th, Rep. Chris Smith sent a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar and the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Disease (NIAID) Director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, thanking them for their tireless efforts to address the Coronavirus outbreak as well as expressing his concerns about Lyme disease sufferers and their […]
Rep. Chris Smith Rep. Collin Peterson ISSUE At this time the Lyme Disease Association, Inc. is asking you to contact your Congress Member to ask him/her to sign on to 2 important letters from the US House Lyme Disease Caucus. These bipartisan letters provide details that the Lyme Caucus is asking the 2 Appropriations Committees […]
The White House released the Fiscal Year 2021 budget proposal which includes a $14 million increase compared to the 2020 enacted level that focuses on tick-borne diseases. Excerpts from Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2021: “Prioritizes Critical Health Research and Supports Innovation” … “NIH would continue to address the opioid epidemic and […]
The 116th Congress House Committee on Appropriations submitted a report in explanation of bill H.R. 2740, the Omnibus that funds Health and Human Services (HHS) including the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and outlines the final legislative language and designation of funds for vector-borne diseases, including Lyme disease, […]
On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed the Kay Hagan Tick Act into law as part of an end-of-year spending package that had passed both Houses. The bill had been introduced by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) in the House and by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) in the Senate. The bill language was changed in […]
The Senate Tick Act (Collins, ME) was passed out of the Senate HELP Committee; however, it was a different bill than the one that was originally submitted to the Senate Committee that many Lyme groups supported. The HELP committee replaced it in its entirety with a Manager’s Amendment, submitted “in the nature of a substitute,” which still keeps the same bill number, S-1657, and it was renamed the Kay Hagan Tick Act. For more information and action to take…
If you DO NOT see your congressperson’s name on list below, or for more info, Return to Tick Act Article & Steps to Take