Greetings SMA families, researchers and friends:

We would like to extend our deepest thanks for your dedication and all you have done to help grow support for the SMA Treatment Acceleration Act (H.R. 3334/S. 2042). Thanks to your efforts, 83 Members of the House of Representatives and 21 Senators have signed on to the bill, a major milestone for the first-ever federal legislation authorizing SMA funding.

Our approach and goals for the rest of this year are to continue to push for consideration of the bill. Congress is likely to recess for the fall election season as early as this week, but, there is a possibility that a “lame duck” session will occur following the November elections and before the new Congress and President are sworn into office. If Congress does return for a lame duck session, it is possible that the SMA Treatment Acceleration Act could be considered. As part of an effort to create such an opportunity, our government relations team is in ongoing discussions with Congressional leadership and senior members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on both sides of the aisle.

Regardless of the outcome of a lame duck session, we have made extraordinary progress over the past 12 months which positions us perfectly to reintroduce the bill at the start of the new Congress next January, continue to grow support, and work towards passage and enactment. Thank you again for your continued hard work as we make progress in securing support for our Act. As we continue our discussions with Congressional leaders in the coming months, we will provide additional updates as well as calls to action to seek your help in moving key decision makers in the House and Senate.

Sincerely,

Martha Slay, FightSMA

Kenneth Hobby, Families of SMA

Cynthia Joyce, SMA Foundation

NOTE: If you have any questions about the SMA Treatment Acceleration Act, please feel free to contact any one of our Government Affairs staff: Laura Breiteneicher of the SMA Foundation (laurab@wswdc.com / 202-589-0800), Spencer Perlman of Families of SMA (spencer@fsma.org / 202-333-5750), or Caroline Gibson of Fight SMA (carolinegibson@fightsma.com / 804-515-0080)