Federal Update - April '22

Spring has sprung in Washington D.C. and for the city’s tourists, that means a walk around the tidal basin to see the famous cherry blossoms. But for heart and stroke advocates it means it’s time to focus and continue our work building a world of longer, healthier lives!

In case you have not seen our recent email and text alerts (text “CURES” to 46839 to sign up), there are a few hot button issues in D.C. that we’re currently focusing our efforts on. We’ve highlighted two campaigns below, as well as an expected regulatory effort, to help keep you in the loop and encourage you to take action. We will be sure to keep you all informed on the progress of these important issues.

Expanding the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival Nationwide:

Otherwise known as the CARES registry, this effort centers on expanding the existing sudden cardiac arrest registry nationwide. The CARES registry was created to help increase survival rates for the more than 350,000 Americans per year who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). CARES tracks OHCA’s and allows cities, states and public health organizations to study outcomes, coordinate and improve patient care and ultimately increase survival rates. In communities where emergency response systems are coordinated, measured, and based on evidence-based practices, the out of hospital cardiac arrest survival rate can reach over 50% when the event is witnessed. In too many communities, survival rates are in the single digits.

Unfortunately, due to inadequate funding, more than 100 million people from 19 states are not covered by CARES and cannot benefit from coordinated care. We can help change that by sending an email to Congress in support of expanding the CARES registry nationwide! Click this link to contact Congress.

Support Kids, Not Red Tape Act:

Also known as S.3979, the Support Kids, Not Red Tape Act would extend waivers that have enabled the USDA and schools to help keep children fed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

In response to the pandemic, the U.S. Congress granted authority to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to issue waivers for child nutrition programs across the country to continue to feed children. Despite economic hardships, supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and school day structure changes, schools have helped fight off food and nutrition insecurity for millions of families thanks to these waivers.

However, unless Congress takes immediate action, these waivers will expire in a few short weeks, disrupting access to nutritious meals for more than 30 million children. Click this link to quickly contact Congress.

Tobacco Regulation:

We wanted you to be the first to know that we expect the FDA will soon release several tobacco related rules that we will want your help responding to. The rules will deal with access to menthol tobacco products as well as flavored cigars. When the FDA issues these rules, we will need to be very active and vocal to prevent Big Tobacco from weakening the proposed rules. We will be in touch as soon as we know more, so please be on the lookout for ways to help push back against BIG Tobacco.

Didn’t find anything that interests you in this newsletter post? Don’t worry! The American Heart Association and You’re the Cure advocates are working on many other, critically important advocacy issues across the country and you can always reach out to us directly to find out more about state and local issues. Just shoot us an email at [email protected] and we will follow-up with ways for you to make an impact on your community.

Thanks for all you do!