Epilepsy Alliance America supports the Congressional Epilepsy Caucus
Representative Costa (Center) with representatives from Valley Children’s Healthcare – May 26, 2023
Epilepsy Alliance America is committed to helping to grow the membership, reach and impact of the bipartisan Congressional Epilepsy Caucus.
The Congressional Epilepsy Caucus brings together Members of Congress and experts to raise awareness and understanding about epilepsy, implement meaningful legislation and advocate for funding epilepsy research in the United States Congress. It was launched in February 2023 by U.S. Representatives Jim Costa (CA-21) and Gregory Murphy, MD (NC-03).
You can read the Press Release issued in February 2023 here to learn more.
You can download a Fact Sheet about the Caucus here.
Valley Children’s Healthcare, a member organization of Epilepsy Alliance America
Representative Jim Costa visited Valley Children’s Healthcare in Madera, CA in May 2023. He visited the Level 4 Epilepsy Center at Valley Children’s Healthcare and spoke to health care providers who work with people with epilepsy about the day to day challenges of living with epilepsy, the treatments provided, and the needs of the epilepsy community. Epilepsy Alliance America Board member, Caitlin Bernard-Vincent, serves as the Epilepsy Support Program Manager at Valley Children’s Healthcare and was part of the team who met with Rep. Costa.
What can you do to help?
- Contact your U.S. Representative and ask them to join the Congressional Epilepsy Caucus.
- Share YOUR epilepsy journey with them and let them know the impact of epilepsy on your life and that of your family.
- Share this fact sheet with them.
Please encourage your U.S. Representative and any other Representatives you have connections with to join the Epilepsy Caucus! Bipartisan Co-Chairs U.S. Reps. Greg Murphy, MD (R-NC-3) and Jim Costa (D-CA-21) launched the first-ever Congressional Epilepsy Caucus in February 2023. Congressional caucuses bring members of Congress together around a shared interest to consider policy solutions-so this caucus is a great way to raise awareness, build epilepsy champions and advance epilepsy-related federal policies and funding. As of now, there is only an Epilepsy Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives so this is just a request for Representatives; over time, we hope to establish a complementary Epilepsy Caucus in the U.S. Senate.
How to make the request
Not sure who your U.S. Representative is? You can look it up here.
To make the request to the office, you can
(1) send it via the “contact me” webform on their official congressional website or
(2) call the phone number listed on their official congressional website or call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 (voice) or 202-224-3091 (TTY) to be connected. Typically, you want to ask to be connected with the staff person who handles healthcare.
Here is some language you can use to ask your U.S. Representative to join the Congressional Epilepsy Caucus:
As someone [LIVING WITH/AFFECTED BY] the epilepsies, I ask Rep. [LAST NAME] to join the recently established bipartisan Congressional Epilepsy Caucus. At least 3.4 million Americans live with active epilepsy. Epilepsy is a disease or disorder of the brain which causes recurring seizures. It is a spectrum disease comprised of many diagnoses including an ever-growing number of rare epilepsies. Epilepsy, seizures, and their severity are different person-to-person, but epilepsy often impacts many aspects of life including needed health care, employment, education and transportation. Epilepsy or seizures impose an annual burden of at least $24.5 billion in the United States.
[SHARE HOW EPILEPSY HAS IMPACTED YOUR LIFE AND WHY YOU’D LIKE YOUR REP TO JOIN THE CAUCUS.]
Thank you for considering this request. To join, contact the health staff for either Rep. Murphy ([email protected]) or Rep. Costa ([email protected]).
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