The LDA is pleased to announce that the Lyme bill, HR 4701, July 23, 2014 version, passed with voice vote out of the Energy & Commerce Committee, today, July 30.
The battle for passage of this bill began early this year when LDA met with House leadership to present objections to a vector-borne diseases bill from being introduced in the House Health Subcommittee that would have covered Lyme disease but had no representation at all from patients and physicians and would not have covered other tick-borne diseases because of incidence rates. The LDA provided language changes which provided patient input and transparency. The bill was brought before the Subcommittee, but an amendment in the nature of a substitute was offered and passed out instead—a substitute that was dangerous for patients.
The LDA led a nationwide campaign to bring back patient friendly language and had a letter signed by 154 groups nationwide stating what was necessary from a patient perspective which was sent to all of the Members of the Energy & Commerce Committee. We then worked with Mr. Gibson and the Committee to change the language to produce a bill which will help provide a research agenda for Lyme and other tick-borne diseases including evaluating chronic or persistent infection and co-infections.
The LDA thanks Mr. Gibson, bill sponsor; Mr. C. Smith; and Mr. Upton and all of the Committee members who supported the bill. We also thank our partner groups who were instrumental in the effort to pass this legislation, and all Lyme groups across the country, patients, and other groups who worked on this effort. The next step for the bill is to go to the House floor, which will probably occur sometime after the summer Congressional recess.
Day 2 video (7/30), bill voting, is in the second video box, begins at 33:20.