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Call for Legislative Action
Legislative Alert for the Lifespan Respite Act
Do you want to see funding for Lifespan Respite in FY2009? If the answer is yes, then please help make it happen by taking action and contacting your federal Representatives today!The Lifespan Respite Care Act was signed into law in 2006, but has not received any funding from Congress. In the US House of Representatives, Congressmen Langevin (D-RI) and Ferguson (R-NJ) have sent a “Dear Colleague” to all Members of the House urging them to sign onto a letter that will go to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Labor, HHS and Education appropriations to fund Lifespan Respite in 2009. Please call or visit your Representative today and urge them to sign onto this letter. To identify your federal legislators, visit http://www.house.gov/ and type in your zip code. The first deadline for signing the letter is March 7. You can cut and paste the message below and send an email at this site or if you prefer to reach your legislators by phone, call 202-224-3121 and ask for the Member's office; then ask for appropriations staff and offer the following message:
n The Lifespan Respite Care Act was passed by Congress in 2006 to make respite more accessible and affordable to family caregivers, regardless of age or disability, but to date, Congress has provided no funding ($0.00).
n In our state of ____________, family caregivers need respite desperately, regardless of the age or disability of the care recipient. [Consider supplementing this with personal stories.]
n Representatives Langevin and Ferguson have circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter asking you to sign onto a letter to the House Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, and Education urging full funding ($53.3 million) for the Lifespan Respite Care program in the FY09 Labor, HHS, and Education funding bill.
n TAKE ACTION in support of family caregivers. On behalf of all the family caregivers in your state, please contact Congressman Langevin or Ferguson and sign onto this letter today.
n We finally have an opportunity to provide the one service -- respite -- family caregivers most frequently request and say they need to go on and at the same time provide significant savings to our long-term care system.
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