March 11, 2008
Dear Colleague,
Please contact your members of the House of Representatives today in support of the SAMHSA Minority Fellowship Program!
The co-Chairs of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus, Representatives Grace Napolitano (D-CA) and Tim Murphy (R-PA), began circulating the attached Dear Colleague letter in the House of Representatives this week. The letter calls on the House Appropriations Committee to restore funding for the Minority Fellowship Program within the Center for Mental Health Services at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) at $6 million for fiscal year 2009. President Bush eliminated funding for the Minority Fellowship Program in his FY 2009 budget request. We need your help to ensure that funding for this program is restored for FY 2009.
We are asking that you contact your House members as soon as possible to ask them to sign on to this letter. Dear Colleague letters offer a way for Members of Congress to express their support for a given program to the Appropriations Committee. If this request is to be taken seriously by the Appropriations Committee—the committee which determines how much federal funding is spent on various federal programs, such as the Minority Fellowship Program—this letter will need to include as many signatures as possible. Signatures are due by this Friday, March 14.