Operation 435 Action Alert: Contact Your Representative to Join the Congressional COPD Caucus Today
July 28, 2009
Join the COPD Movement!
More than 20 million Americans have COPD and half of them dont know it. Even though it is America‘s fourth-leading cause of death, millions of Americans have never even heard of COPD. That includes our elected leaders in Washington, DC.
The COPD Foundation has launched Operation 435. Our goal is simple: to build a nationwide movement of COPD patients. By speaking out, and sharing our personal stories, we can raise awareness and make the elimination of COPD a national priority.
Our first task: educate our elected leaders in Congress about COPD. Even though every Representative in Congress has more than 50,000 constituents affected by COPD, very few are aware of the disease and how it can affect a person and their family.
Heres how you can help: contact your Representative in Congress today and urge him/her to join the Congressional COPD Caucus. By joining the Caucus, your Representative can show his/her support for addressing this serious disease.
Currently, just 25 of the 435 Representatives in Congress are members of the Caucus. By persuading more Representatives to join, we can begin to build the national movement we need. But to succeed, we need your participation.
You can obtain the name and contact information for your Representative at http://www.house.gov. Use the pull down-menu to find your representative or enter your zip code in the box at the top left. His/her contact information will be on their site. Then call, write a letter, or send an email or fax. Your note does not need to be fancy or full of policy arguments. In fact, you can cut and paste the following and use it as your note to your Representative:
I am writing to ask you to join the Congressional COPD Caucus. More than 20 million Americans have COPD, including me. By joining the caucus, you can show your support for eradicating Americas 4th deadliest killer. You can join by contacting the office of Caucus Co-Chairs Representative John Lewis or Cliff Stearns. Thank you.
With your help, we will build a powerful patient movement to address COPD. Please contact me if you have any questions or would like to get more involved.
Joseph LaMountain
Director of Patient Advocacy, COPD Foundation, Washington, DC