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EdAction
Maple River Education Coalition PAC
105 Peavey Rd, St 116
Chaska, MN
55318
952-361-4931
http://www.EdAction.org
E-mail
February 15, 2005
Report on Washington DC Lobbying on Parental Rights
Many thanks to all of those who
supported Dr. Effrem's trip to Washington DC to support parental rights and HR
181, The Parental Consent Act, authored by Cong. Ron Paul. Your financial
support, hard work, phone calls, and or prayers are bearing much fruit!
Over three days, the following events all worked
together to raise awareness about the dangers of mental health screening
programs and encourage support for HR 181, authored by physician and Congressman
Ron Paul of Texas:
- Dr. Effrem was the featured speaker at a congressional briefing attended by over 90 people, mostly staff from both House and Senate, Republican and Democrat, as well as some media, and members of outside groups. Michael Ostrolenk, from EdWatch, Eagle Forum, and The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons; Dr. Joseph Tarantolo, chairman of the board of ICSPP and a practicing psychiatrist; and Sue Blevins, a nurse and executive director of the Institute for Health Freedom also spoke at the briefing.
- She met with or made contact with six Senate offices, including two US Senators.
- Dr. Effrem met with the staff of seven different House Members, plus one Congressman in person. These are offices of Members on the committees that will hear HR 181. She also made contact with staff of one of the committees that will hear HR 181.
- Dr. Effrem spoke at a meeting of House staff, as well as at a meeting of Senate staff and prominent national family groups.
- She spoke at two networking meetings of prominent policy groups attended by many groups active in federal policy and members of the media.
The briefing and these meetings combined with
your dedicated work are already having an impact. There are already 19
co-sponsors of Dr. Paul's bill, HR 181, 8 since the day of the briefing, who
deserve our thanks:
ALPHABETICAL COSPONSORS(19), District number, Date they signed on:
As of Wednesday, February 9th, the bill has been referred to all three House committees that will hear it - Energy and Commerce, the committee of primary jurisdiction; Education and the Workforce; and Ways and Means. Several Senate offices are looking at the bill and working on it, some with an eye toward making Congressman Paul's very good bill even stronger, something unusual for the Senate, and there has even been discussion of offering a Sense of the Senate resolution, to put into the Congressional Record the dangers of mental health screening and drug treatment as a prelude to a bill.
The last piece of good news is that the Child Medication Safety Act is about to be reintroduced in the House to prohibit coercion with all psychiatric medications, including the very controversial antidepressants and the antipsychotic medications, not only those on the controlled substances list, as passed in IDEA. More information on that will be available soon.
Thank you again for your support of Dr. Effrem's trip. Please contact your House Member and either thank them for signing on to HR 181 or urge them to do so. Please also contact your two Senators and tell them your concerns about mental health screening and that you would like them to carry the bill in the Senate.
Dr. Effrem's informative and even entertaining handout for the briefing and these various meetings is available for you to send to your Member of Congress on our website. Please also let any congressional staff you reach know that they may contact our office for more information. Together we will stand to protect our children's minds and our rights as parents.
