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Action Alert   

Meet with your Members of Congress over Recess

Members of Congress are back home in August for a "District work period" before returning to Washington, DC in early September to wrap up this session of Congress. Take advantage of this time to schedule a meeting with your US Senators and Representative and their staffs at home, to educate them about the reality of recovery and the need to eliminate the barriers that are keeping people from getting the help they need to get into and sustain their recovery. To find their local offices, enter your zip code here.

1. Invite them to attend and speak at events that you have scheduled during September, National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. If your organization is taking part in Faces & Voices Rally for Recovery on September 20, ask them to participate and meet the recovery community in your city or town.

2. Ask them to finish the job of passing legislation to end insurance discrimination facing people with addiction and mental illness when they return to Washington. We're very close to final victory and we need their support to get the job done this year.

3. Let them know about Faces & Voices nonpartisan civic engagement campaign, Recovery Voices Count and voter registration, education and get-out-the vote activities that you're involved in. Let them know that there are people in your city and state who care deeply about making it possible for more Americans to get the help they need to recover from addiction to alcohol and other drugs.

Please let us know if we can help you set up meetings and remember to follow-up on all of the meetings that you schedule. These activities will help build a relationship with your elected officials.

Insurance Discrimination Facing People with Addiction and Mental Illness

When Congress returns in early September, they will be looking at a number of unresolved issues and bills, including the compromise bill to end insurance discrimination facing people with addiction and mental illness. When the US Senate failed to pass the tax extenders bill that included the "parity" compromise in late July, Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) said, "the vote today was strictly about the main substance of the tax extenders bill, not about mental health parity. There remains a strong bipartisan coalition in support of mental health parity, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this legislation when Congress reconvenes in September."

What you can do:

1. Ask your US Senators and Representative to make sure that the compromise bill that has been finalized by House and Senate negotiators is passed before they adjourn. Email your elected officials now!

2. Add your organization as a cosigner of a letter to the House and Senate Congressional Leadership urging that the compromise bill be passed by the end of September. To cosign, send an email to Christie Lum at clum@counseling.org, with your organization's name and a contact name by close of business Friday, September 5, 2008.

3. Mark your calendar for September 10, 2008 for our final National Call-in Day to end insurance discrimination! You and our allies have placed thousands of calls to members of Congress as part of our nationwide organizing to enact a bill to begin to end insurance discrimination facing people with addiction and mental illness. Those calls have kept the issue on the radar screen of elected officials and helped keep the momentum going.

We hope that you're having a great summer and want to thank you so much for all of your previous calls and advocacy!

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