We need your help

CRITICAL!!!Okay Folks this is it. I need all of you to call/write/email the letter I’ve written below because we have run into a speed bump….I’ll try and be brief. The Senate Higher Education Committee is going to introduce its Budget Bill on Tuesday this coming week. At this point the Committee Chair wants to roll our initiative into a singular bill to fund the University of MN’s Regenerative Medicine Bill appropriation. This is not what we want because this will not follow the innovations around the state and it will not give us a voice to decide how the funds are distributed.

SO PLEASE copy the letter below (or feel free to write your own) into an email, or use it to call the Committee members below. IF you can’t take the time for all of them, PLEASE AT THE VERY LEAST EMAIL OR CALL Sen. Bonoff the COMMITTEE CHAIR. WE HAVE TIL TUESDAY when this will be decided.

We have done great work and gotten much farther than we have in the past….this is the last high hurdle for this session. We want to get this DONE. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP. Please copy me in your email at [email protected]

Matthew

Senator Bonoff and Committee Members of
Committee on Higher Education and Workforce Development 
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. 
Capitol, Room 325 
St. Paul, MN 55155-1606

Senator Bonoff and Committee Members,

Thank you very much for your support of the Spinal Cord Injury and Traumatic Brain Injury 
Communities’ request to invest in the research that seeks to provide innovative treatments for 
our injuries (SF #766). It is my hope that we are able to retain the spirit of this Bill to support 
innovations over institutions, and to give us a voice in the decision making process.

We are following many research projects from HCMC, the Mayo Clinic, the VA, Courage Kenny 
Rehab Institute and the University of Minnesota. It is our hope that all of them would be able 
to compete for funds and the best among them be recipients of the investment toward 
functional improvement for our injuries.

Some of these research projects are poised to move from the bench to the bedside as the 
field is advancing, and funding is the bottleneck. Other projects are seeking to more deeply 
understand the nature of the injury and investigate the optimal strategies for repair. All of 
them are in need of funds to move the field forward and ultimately provide treatment options 
for the 118,000 Minnesotans living with these devastating injuries. We are fearful that the 
implications of rolling this initiative into a single institution with a broad application of 
dollars will lead to a negligible impact upon our concerns.

Thank you very much for listening to us and working hard on our behalf.

Sincerely,

Committee Chair: Sen. Bonoff 651-296-4314 [email protected]

Senator Torres Ray: 651-296-4272 www.senate.mn/senatortorresrayemail

Greg D. Clausen (57, DFL)
303 Capitol
651-296-4120
E-mail: Use Mail Form

Jeremy R. Miller (28, R)
135 State Office Building
651-296-5649
E-mail:
[email protected]

Kent Eken (04, DFL)
303 Capitol
651-296-3205
E-mail:
[email protected]

Melisa Franzen (49, DFL)
306 Capitol
651-296-6238
E-mail: Use Mail Form

Susan Kent (53, DFL)
205 Capitol
651-296-4166
E-mail: Use Mail Form

Carla J. Nelson (26, R)
117 State Office Building
651-296-4848
E-mail:
[email protected]

Julianne E. Ortman (47, R)
119 State Office Building
651-296-4837
E-mail:
[email protected]

Branden Petersen (35, R)
127 State Office Building
651-296-3733
E-mail:
[email protected]

Eric R. Pratt (55, R)
23 State Office Building
651-296-4123
E-mail:
[email protected]

Kathy Sheran (19, DFL)
G-12 Capitol
651-296-6153
E-mail:
[email protected]

Dan Sparks (27, DFL)
328 Capitol
651-296-9248
E-mail:
[email protected]