How to get an awareness bill in your legislature
by Idamarie Scimeca Duffy

Make an appointment with your local state Senator. Give him or her a copy of the Delaware Bill and impress upon him that their state should follow the lead of Delaware so that the medical community becomes more aware of this insidious disease.

Once the Senator understands how important Awareness is, ask him or her to intercede with the chairman of the State Health & Human Services Committee. He/she will probably insist on your appearing before the committee (as I did) so be prepared to discuss "the Bill" and the positive effect it can have on so many of the state's citizens (voters)! If the Committee passes a Resolution it goes to the full Senate for a vote. If it passes the Senate, you must then get your Local State House of Representatives Member involved. This is easy since you already have an approved Senate version; but the same steps must be taken in the House as in the Senate, as explained earlier.

Once the House approves the Bill, then the Senator gets the Bill on the Governor's Signing Agenda. Even though our Senator (Amick) is a Republican, he had no problem with Governor (Minner), a Democrat, since our House and Senate Bills passed unanimously with no negative votes at all. Health & Human Services (HHS) then spreads the word to all State Licensed Medical Practitioners. (Thus, no additional funds are required because the cost of this comes out of the HHS budget.)

http://www.rsds.org/4/awareness/Advocacy/index.html