September 2005 | Vol. 23, No. 9

Update of Status of the SAAAVE Act in 109th Congress

Earlier this year the Screening Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Very Efficiently (SAAAVE) Act (H.R. 827/S.390) was re-introduced in the 109th Congress to address a serious health risk for elderly Americans, Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms. The new bill would direct Medicare to cover abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening, one of our nation's most preventable but often neglected conditions taking approximately 15,000 American lives a year.

H.R. 827, introduced in Congress by Representative John Shimkus (R-IL), is now co-sponsored by 29 other Representatives.

S. 390, which was introduced in the Senate by Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT), is now co-sponsored by 13 Senators.

You can find the list of SAAAVE Act co-sponsors by going to the Thomas website at http://thomas.loc.gov and entering either H.R. 827 or S. 390 in the Bill number search field.

Grassroots letters are an important part of getting Congressional members to sign onto this important legislation. SVU members are urged to send a letter by fax to their two U.S. Senators and sole U.S. Representative to ask for their support of the SAAAVE Act. Sample Congressional letters are posted on the SVU website under Comments to Government. You can get your Representative’s or Senator’s office fax numbers by calling the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and asking to be connected to your Representative’s or Senator’s office, and then tell them you are a constituent and would like the office fax number to fax a letter to the Representative or Senator about being a co-sponsor of the SAAAVE Act. If you send a fax to your Members of Congress, SVU would appreciate receiving a copy of your correspondence. Please send it to SVU Executive Director Steve Haracznak by email at steveh@svunet.org, by fax at 301-459-5651, or by land mail to the SVU national office in Lanham. MD. Thanks for your support of the SAAAVE Act.

Remember to check the SVU website and the monthly e-Spectrum online newsletter for the latest updates on the status of the SAAAVE Act.