CALL TO ACTION CENTER
When focused solely on the state and federal advocacy of the profession, the calls to action NEVER END. We have created a space for our federal calls to action on this front page here, which also includes our prefiling activities, bill amendments and hard targets.
We have also created a space for states to include information on lobbying days or any national support they may need for their legislative activities.
There are also NUMEROUS regulatory calls for commentary that we must be active in. These regulations affect pain management regulation, FDA regulation, federal agencies related to the department of Health & Human Services, Acupuncture-specific regulation under the VA and Department of Defense, and all state regulatory calls for commentary related to acupuncture and Traditional Asian Medicine.
When looking for ways to be involved, make sure you identify federal, state or regulatory calls to action that interest you.
118th Congress: Prefiling Activities
AcuCongress assembled its Prefiling Team in late October of 2022 and submitted a request for language amendments that would include within the definition of "qualified acupuncturist" our Masters/Doctoral level educations and clinical training. View HR4803 here.
The language we are focused on is as follows:
Prefiling Cosponsor/Companion Bill Hard Targets for 118th Congressional Session
Continuing with the momentum we had in the previous session, AcuCongress is dedicated to making sure our Congressional Champion, Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-CA28,) doesn't introduce our legislation alone. While there was turnover, even among our current list of sponsors, we will be working all hard targets BEFORE introduction to recapture our current list of cosponsors, add a companion bill in the Senate and introduce bipartisan bills in both chambers. Legislators who cosponsored HR4803 will be approached AS SOON AS WE HAVE DRAFT LANGUAGE APPROVED. For now, we are proceeding with our prior language in HR4803: Acupuncture for Our Seniors Act, until we are ready to introduce.
We thank all Acuvists who worked so hard to add their legislators to the list of cosponsors for HR4803 (especially our "Day-Of" Cosponsors: legislators who signed onto our legislation DURING an active AcuCongress federal fly-in: Reps. Napolitano, Meng & Norton-Holmes.) We will continue to work with their offices listed below with their updated districts, as well as the new members of Congress who have moved into their new roles.
118th Congressional Hard Target Heat Map
Hard Targets: Ways & Means Committee: Subcommittee on Health
Hard Targets: Energy & Commerce Committee: Subcommittee on Health
House/Senate Committee Hard Targets
AcuCongress will focus on two committees per chamber: House Ways & Means Committee & Senate Finance Committee govern Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) policy and appropriations. House Energy & Commerce and Senate Health Education Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committees govern broad healthcare policy. If we run the larger bill, we will also add committees from both chambers that govern Veterans policy. The list of hard targets here will be updated to reflect new committee assignments. Ultimately we will target the larger committees; however, we begin with the subcommittee members that govern healthcare policy.
Hard Targets: Senate Finance Committee, Subcommittee on Health Care
