Clean Copy of Letter requesting Organizational Letters to Congressional Committe

[Guest guest]

I've cleaned up the letter which Carla had posted and hope this

easier-to-read version encourages all of you to send your own letter

to the parites listed at the end of this request. We DO make a

difference.

Leonie

Subject: Requesting Organizational Letters to Congressional Committee

Chairs re: The Environmental Health Research Act of 2003

Dear Friends and Endorsers of The EnvironmentalHealth Research Act:

With the coming of the New Year we are entering the " end game " of the

current congressional session, as senators and representatives begin

to anticipate the 2004 presidential elections. We're coming to a

make or break period for the Environmental Health Research Act, so I

ask that you make one special effort shortly to spring the bill loose

for passage.

Specifically, during the first full week of January, as congressional

staff return from their holiday break and focus on congress's 2004

calendar, I ask that you send letters to key committee and

subcommittee chairs and ranking minority members, requesting that

they co-sponsor and support hearings on The Environmental Health

Research Act (S1588/HR852).

The core message, regardless of your organizational affiliation, is

the need to better understand how exposures to toxic chemicals may be

contributing to increases in various health disorders. Both

consumers and producers need to know this. We need to lower both the

human and financial cost of preventable disorders.

I can produce a draft letter for those who may want one, but it is

better if Congress receives diverse messages about the need for this

legislation, from those concerned about learning disabilities,

children's health, breast cancer, and the array of other effects of

chemical exposures. Some of you already have sent such letters to

Representative Slaughter, who introduced the bill in the House. You

can now make additional use of them.

In the Senate, the bill would be considered at the full committee

level in the Senate Health, Environment, Labor and Pensions

Committee. In the House, the bill could go either of two routes,

either through the Environment, Technology and Standards Subcommittee

of the House Science Committee, or the Public Health Subcommittee of

the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Following subcommittee

consideration in the House, the bill would go to the full committee

before it could come to the House floor for a vote.

I have listed below the names, titles, and fax numbers of the key

targets for your letters. I ask that you fax letters, because letters

sent by regular mail are subject to long delays stemming from anthrax-

related decontamination procedures. Your organizational letters will,

I hope, reinforce the messages legislators already have received from

their constituents. For example, through WWF's Conservation Action

Network alone, more than 32,000 messages have been sent to Congress.

I appreciate the activist alerts that some of you have sent that have

added to that total, and I invite others of you to activate your own

networks.

If you send a letter, I would appreciate your blind-copying me, so I

may track what Congress is seeing.

Honorable Vernon Ehlers

Chair

Honorable Mark Udall

Ranking Member

Subcommittee on Environment, Technology and Standards

House Committee on Science

2319 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington DC 20515

FAX: 202 225-4438

Honorable Sherwood Boehlert

Chair

Honorable Ralph Hall

Ranking Member

House Committee on Science

2320 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington DC 20515

FAX: 202 226-0113

Honorable Bilirakis

Chair

Honorable Sherrod Brown

Ranking Member

Subcommittee on Health

House Committee on Energy and Commerce

2125 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington DC 20515

FAX: 202 225-1919

Honorable W.J. Tauzin

Chair

Honorable D. Dingell

Ranking Member

House Committee on Energy and Commerce

2125 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington DC 20515

FAX: 202 225-1919

Honorable Judd Gregg

Chair

Honorable M. Kennedy

Ranking Member

Senate Committee on Health, Education, Laborand Pensions

835 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

FAX: 202 224-6510

Thanks in advance for your help

Rich Liroff

A. Liroff, Ph.D

Senior Fellow

Toxics Program

World Wildlife Fund

1250 24th Street NW

Washington DC 20037

ph 202 778-9644

fax 202 530-0743

e-mail Rich.Liroff@...