Tag Archives: arthritis research funding

Durbin Amendment passes

Victory for our Advocates! Durbin Amendment to the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act Passes!

The medical research program at the Department of Defense (DoD) has led to many significant discoveries including breakthroughs on nerve regeneration, and traumatic brain and spinal cord injury. Yet the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act contained language that would significantly jeopardize the program’s research, including arthritis research, by creating narrowly defined funding eligibility criteria.
Continue reading Victory for our Advocates! Durbin Amendment to the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act Passes!

barriers arthritis care

Your Voice Counts: Help Us Fight for CDC Arthritis Funding Increases in 2017

According to the CDC, an estimated 53 million U.S. adults have arthritis and the number is expected to grow to 67 million by 2030. With the increasing prevalence of arthritis, more support is needed.

If you’re familiar with our core advocacy efforts and priorities, you know that increasing funding for critical arthritis research and community programs is a significant goal of ours. Last year, we brought you along on our journey to fight cuts to the CDC’s arthritis budget.

Background: Our Fight to Reduce 2016 Funding Cuts

In 2015, as the number of people who live with arthritis continued growing, 2016 federal funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Arthritis Program was cut by $3.5 million (25 percent). Not only is the CDC Arthritis Program the only federal program dedicated solely to arthritis, it was the only CDC disease program to receive cuts last year.
Continue reading Your Voice Counts: Help Us Fight for CDC Arthritis Funding Increases in 2017


Advocates Keep Arthritis Research Funding From Being Eliminated!

Thanks to the efforts of Arthritis Foundation Advocates, an amendment that could cut vital arthritis research in the Senate Defense Authorization bill will not go to the floor of the Senate for a vote! Over 58 letters and phone calls were made to senators last week by Arthritis Foundation Advocates to preserve the research program.  Last week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) filed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act asking that all research not directly related to deployment, combat, recovery and rehabilitation be defunded.  The amendment could have cut some of the arthritis research currently being conducted by the Department of Defense, and made researchers more cautious in the type of research they pursue.  Even research that gets funded would have had to go through extra hoops to ensure it is related to specific military functions.

Continue reading Advocates Keep Arthritis Research Funding From Being Eliminated!