Members of US House of Representatives Respond to IFFGD Request

NIH Urged to Support Research for IBS and Motility Disorders 

 

(June 2006) In May 2006 IFFGD sponsored and led visits to congressional offices in Washington, DC. Our group of fifteen leading clinicians and investigators in the field of digestive health along with seven representatives from IFFGD visited thirty-three Senate and House offices representing eleven states. Our mission was to encourage support of funding a 5% increase for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and support of federal initiatives essential to increasing progress toward the needed research on functional GI and motility disorders, particularly the most common – IBS.

While the congress voted a flat NIH budget for fiscal year 2007 – effectively a decrease in overall spending when adjusted for inflation – we are happy to report that we received significant support from House members regarding attention to the functional GI and motility disorders. In an historic first in this field, a bi-partisan letter was sent to Elias Zerhouni, M.D. who is the Director of the National Institutes of Health that stated in part the following:

 

"Expanding the IBS research portfolio at NIDDK would serve to advance our understanding of this disease, determine improved treatment options for IBS sufferers, and assist in recruiting new investigators to conduct IBS research.

"Recently, you announced the establishment of the National Commission on Digestive Diseases at NIDDK, which will develop a long-range plan for digestive diseases at NIH. It is our understanding that IBS will be included as a part of this plan. We urge NIH to accelerate funding for extramural clinical and basic IBS and motility disorders research at the NIDDK and ensure that IBS be given ample attention in the long-range digestive disease plan."

 

The letter was signed by twenty-five members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Eliot Engel (D-NY-17th) and J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ-5th) were cosponsors of the letter and helped encourage their colleagues to support this effort. The House members who were signatories to the letter are listed below.

Take Action
If your Representative is on this list, please be sure to take a moment to thank them for signing the June 16, 2006 letter to Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Director of NIH in support of IBS and motility disorders research at the NIDDK. They need to hear from you; we need to continue to maintain and build support in congress. Send an Email to your representatives here.

Arizona J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ-5th) - Cosponsor Ed Pastor (D-AZ-4th) Illinois Bobby Rush (D-IL-1st) Iowa Jim Leach (R-IA-2nd) Florida Mark Foley (R-FL-16th) Louisiana William Jefferson (D-LA-2nd) Michigan Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI-11th) Minnesota Gil Gutknecht (R-MN-1st) New Jersey Donald Payne (D-NJ-10th) New York Eliot Engel (D-NY-17th) - Cosponsor Maurice Hinchey (D-NY-22nd) Michael McNulty (D-NY-21st) Major Owens (D-NY-11th) Charles Rangel (D-NY-15th) Anthony Weiner (D-NY-9th) Nevada Jon Porter (R-NV-3rd) North Carolina David Price (D-NC-4th) Ohio Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-9th) Pennsylvania Robert Brady (D-PA-1st) Texas Pete Sessions (R-TX-32nd) Virginia Tom Davis (R-VA-11th) Jim Moran (D-VA-8th) Frank Wolf (R-VA-10th) Washington Jim McDermott (D-WA-7th) Wisconsin James Sensenbrenner (R-WI-5th)

It is essential that we continue to encourage and monitor research support for the functional GI and motility disorders at NIH as they face the challenges of balancing research priorities with declining resources. It is important that we continue to make our voices heard. It will not happen automatically -- we must speak up for ourselves. Again, we thank all of the IFFGD members and contributors that help make our efforts possible, the participants in our Capitol Hill visits, and these congressional leaders who are responding to our calls for help. We will look for action at NIH.