Highlights of the American Heart Association’s Congressional Lobby Day – You’re the Cure on the Hill are showcased in a new online report.  The event, held April 11 -12  in Washington, D.C., drew more than 300 You’re the Cure volunteer advocates from across the country including youth advocates, heart and stroke survivors, researchers and Celebrity Apprentice’s Star Jones.    To celebrate the association’s Lobby Day accomplishments, the online report features advocates meeting with their representatives to seek support for public policies to reduce heart disease and stroke.  They met with members of Congress and their staff to urge them to appropriate $35 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for FY 2012, co-sponsor the Fitness Integrated with Teaching (FIT) Kids Act and support the Safe Routes to Schools program in the transportation bill.  For more information, please read the report.

The U. S. House of Representatives has taken an important stand in support of women’s health with the passage of the Heart Disease Education, Analysis and Research and Treatment (HEART) for Women Act. This legislative win will help make meaningful advancements in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases (CVD)—the leading killer of American women. Provisions include greater oversight of Food and Drug Administration requirements for reporting sex and race-based data about new medicines and devices and the expansion of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s WISEWOMAN screening program for low-income, uninsured and underinsured women.

Although we still have more work to do to achieve equity in health care and health status for women, this effort sets the stage to better identify and address women’s unique cardiovascular health needs. With more than one in three deaths among American women caused by CVD, we must continue to make strong efforts to ensure this measure is passed into law.

We commend the House for addressing women’s health needs and Representatives Lois Capps (D-CA) and Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) for their leadership and efforts to move the HEART for Women Act forward.