WE MADE IT OUT OF THE HHS COMMITTEE!

To colleagues and friends,

 We are going to the House floor for the final vote.!!!! Several NPs were able to reach out to their Representative and to the HHS Committee members. We just now passed out of committee with a 7-3 vote in favor of our bill. There were 8 substitutes with UMA proposing more restrictions. The 5th substitute removes the remaining language that keeps us from Full Practice Authority designation and is the only substitute that will be used from here on out

Now the work begins anew. We have the weekend to reach out again to every Senator in the Business and Labor standing committee (B&L) to review the bill changes that happened in the House HHS. We also need you to contact your House Representative. We know that UMA will make a strong effort to get the Reps to vote no on the floor. We need them to vote yes and the only way to do that is to increase our efforts in communicating.

IMPORTANT: Please email dr.mhinton@gmail.com if you are able to find out how your legislator plans to vote once you have talked to them. We would like to add that information to our voting roster to keep track.

Here is the current version of SB0036 (substitute 5) for your review. APRN language is on lines 1479-1506. There is a gold TRACK button on the right side of the page - click TRACK and you will get an email following further action on the bill.

Here are the committee members in the Senate B&L.

Here is the link to find your House Representative and Senator. Remind other APRNs to find theirs too!

Please use the Talking Points which are attached. UMA 's strategy is to make this bill a public safety issue. Remind your Representative that NPs have and continue to have similar outcomes to our physician colleagues, same or better satisfaction rates, and are vetted through 5 layers of organization requisites (see Pathway To Licensure attached). Our previous email had Sample Letters that you can also use (also attached). Phone calls are preferred; texts and emails will help as well.

Thank you for your help in getting this win!!!! Again, your grassroots efforts in contacting the Reps really DID MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Your voice is really counted and heard when you reach out. This was a nerve-wracking and very tough fight which so many have helped with. UNP thanks Diane Forster-Burke (UNAs Legislative Representative), the UNA for urging their members to also reach out, AARP, Libertas, National Council of State 
Boards of Nursing, and to Fox/Pig's Renae Cowley for their hard work so far.

Let's get to work!!!!

Melissa Hinton and Lee Moss, Legislative Co-Chairs, and

The UNP Legislative Committee