The Hard Work of Advocacy

Kathy Hansen; Don Lavanty

doi:10.29074/ascls.15.4.194

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Kathy Hansen
Don Lavanty

Extract

Following the 2002 Legislative Symposium, the ASCLS Government Affairs Committee (GAC) has continued to work on the advocacy issues that we raised as they continue their respective journeys through the Congress.

There were five ‘leave-behind’ issue papers addressing legislative and regulatory issues of interest to the laboratory. We have had a great success on the Bioterrorism/Personnel Shortage legislation and some success on the Medicare Reimbursement. We also continue to work on the other three issues: specimen collection fee, Medicare simplification, and criteria for waived test classification.

Bioterrorism and the personnel shortage As unfortunate as the events related to September 11th were, the memory of the threat of anthrax on Capitol Hill provided an effective vehicle to use to advocate for support to alleviate the laboratory personnel shortage. Legislative Symposium attendees generally found Senate and House offices to be sympathetic to concerns about allied health shortages and infrastructure. We were making our visits at a time when the conference committee was beginning to work on a compromise version of House and Senate-passed bills.

Ultimately, the conference committee of the House and Senate agreed upon the items found in the House-passed version of the bioterrorism bill that provide for financial support to train additional laboratory professionals. This support is in the form of loan forgiveness, grants to programs, scholarships, and other incentives. That compromise version was passed and signed into law by President Bush. A great success for those who worked so hard at Legislative Day and one we can be proud…