The Legislative Session Begins

The Utah State Legislative session began on Monday.  I'm actively involved in my food allergy and EE support group's lobbying team, and we're trying to get a few bills passed this year. 

The most important bill is one that would require insurance companies to cover the expenise formula that both my boys need.  Its being sponsored by Representative Moss and is HB 233.  From time to time I'll post on my blog if we need emails written to certain legislators to help us in our efforts.  I'd really appreciate it if you took a moment to email when I post a link.  Even just a short 2 sentence email urging a representative to vote for HB 233 will be helpful. 

Other than that we'll just be watching other bills generally and lobbying if they have an effect on the allergy community. 

So, the first call to action is posted below.  It will take 2 minutes of your time, but may save the life of a child with a food allergy.  Thanks!

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In the new legislative session, the school nurse matching funds line item is on the list of monies to be axed (Public Educational Appropriations Subcommittee). This is what districts have used the last couple of years to hire new nurses. The funding for the current year is $882K, which has been cut the past couple years and is down from $1million. If these funds are cut, we could lose more of our already dangerously few school nurse positions throughout the state, which puts our own children at risk whenever they’re at school.


What can you do? It’s simple! We are asking UFAN members, and all Utah parents who have children with health concerns, to write a short email, asking committee members and your legislators to please maintain funding for school nurses this year. Feel free to mention why you think school nurses are vital to your family’s health. Food allergies threaten the lives of our children every day, and school nurses are key to keeping Utah’s 32,000 food-allergic children safe.

Their next meeting is Thursday morning (tomorrow) at 8:00 a.m. so write it right now! To find the legislators for where you live—go to www.le.utah.gov , click on legislators, drop down menu to “find by address/map”, put in your address, and it will tell you who your legislators are… then if you click on their name all their information will come up. Send your email to your legislators.

Then, send that same email to the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee: Sen. D. Chris Buttars, Chair dcbuttars@utahsenate.org and Rep. Merlynn T. Newbold, Chair merlynnnewbold@utah.gov

And finally, send it to the Executive Appropriations Committee: Steven M. Allred, Deputy Director, smallred@utah.gov and Jonathan Ball, Director, jball@utah.gov