NSF - CDC Completed Funding Letter

March 30, 2001

The Honorable Peter Fitzgerald
555 Senate Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Fitzgerald:

I am writing to urge you to support an additional $1.5 million in funding in the Fiscal Year 2002 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill for The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) to fully develop and implement a five-year action plan to address issues related to sleep deprivation, untreated sleep disorders, and fatigue. The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are currently developing this action plan.

The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) is non-profit voluntary health organization based in Washington, DC. NSF works with thousands of patients, volunteers, drowsy driving victims, and sleep centers throughout the country to prevent health and safety problems related to fatigue and untreated sleep disorders. I support the mission and goals of this organization.

As a sleep apnea patient, who is now a sleep activist, I am well aware of the problems and health issues that can occur in my life or those of my family from a lack of sleep or an undiagnosed sleep disorder. Unfortunately, there is an substantial amount of ignorance about sleep and sleep problems in our nation. I write this near the end of National Sleep Awareness Week and urge you to take notice of this and take whatever actions you can to support creating greater awareness of the health benefits of good sleep and of the necessity for getting sleep disorders diagnosed and treated.

There are steps we can take to make sure that people with sleep disorders get proper treatment and others get proper education to prevent sleep-related accidents in the workplace and on the highway. I hope you will support the development of this five-year action plan. This plan would detail ways to develop evaluative research, including data collection, through the NCIPC as well as validate or improve existing surveys and survey methodologies regarding how sleep deprivation or problems are related to on-the-job injuries, highway crashes, and other medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. The data from this research will allow the CDC to develop accurate educational material and model prevention and health promotion programs to provide to states as they address these important issues in numerous settings.

Thank you for consideration of this request. I hope you will contact the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee to express your support for this initiative. If you have any additional questions or need more information, feel free to contact Darrel Drobnich, NSF Director of Government Affairs (202) 347-3471, ext. 202 or call me directly at 555-555-5555.

Sincerely,

Dave Hargett
PO Box 99999
Bolingbrook, IL 60440