Over the past few weeks thousands of people contacted the White House and Congress urging the passage of the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill. On Thursday, November 15th, the House voted to override the President’s veto. While more votes were picked up, they still fell short of the number needed to override the veto.
This bill contained what would have been the first funding increase in two years for diabetes prevention programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The President vetoed the bill because it was about $10 billion over the budget he submitted earlier in the year. A budget that would have continued to under-fund diabetes research and prevention.
Maintaining inadequate funding levels while diabetes grows at an alarming rate is unacceptable. Now the ADA will go back to Congress and try to convince them to stand strong and continue pushing for the higher funding for diabetes research and prevention.
If you would like to help increase government funding for diabetes, support efforts to increase access to affordable and adequate health coverage and eliminate discrimination against people because of their diabetes, register to become a Diabetes Advocate at http://advocacy.diabetes.org.
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