On April 26, 2021, an unprecedented 54 U.S. Representatives signed onto a bipartisan letter in support of critical sleep health and sleep disorders research and awareness.
Fifty-four co-signers is considered a HUGE success by Congressional appropriations letter standards. This is also record-setting, as we had 31 co-signers in 2019 and 41 co-signers in 2020, and goes a long way to advance the sleep community’s medical research and public awareness efforts.
This was, by far, our largest grassroots advocacy effort to date. Multiple sleep advocacy organizations and professional societies activated their communities, leading to over 500 individuals across the country reaching out to their U.S. Representatives. As a result, we raised awareness on Capitol Hill like never before and built a critical mass of legislative champions all thanks to your outreach.
Please join us in thanking the bipartisan group of 54 Representatives who joined the letter including:
If your Representative did not sign on, it does NOT mean they didn’t support your request. Importantly, some may have put in the requests using a confidential process rather than this public process (which is their prerogative and still advances our cause). Similarly, some of your Representatives serve on the subcommittee that the letter is addressed to, so they prefer not to be both a sender and receiver. Securing 54 co-signers is a huge win that took every advocate’s efforts.
Special thanks to Congressman Adam Schiff and his office for championing this letter, especially Heather who organized all the co-signers. Thanks to all the Congressional Offices who responded to their constituents’ requests and signed on.
Thank you for sharing your story and for making your voice heard! Likewise, thank you to the other sleep advocacy organizations who took action. For today, we hope you take great pride in what we accomplished together by reading and sharing this year’s final official letter.
We will keep you updated on the letter’s impact and share additional advocacy opportunities throughout the year. To be the first to hear about future action alerts, sign up for e-updates.
