A Powerful and Timely Kidney Patient Summit

Last week more than 220 Voices for Kidney Health advocates from across the country met with their federal lawmakers in Congress and urged them to join us this National Kidney Month in supporting and advancing policies that would benefit kidney patients nationwide.

For NKF's ninth annual Kidney Patient Summit, advocates from nearly every state held more than 230 virtual meetings, 37 of which were held directly with their elected federal representative or Senator. By sharing their personal stories as well as key facts and figures on the prevalence of kidney disease in America, our Voices for Kidney Health were able to uniquely speak to the urgency behind backing our federal agenda.

Advocate Impact Already Felt

Already, 10 new congressional cosponsors have announced that they will officially support key bills that would benefit the kidney community, and we expect more to follow after receiving commitments of support during last week's meetings. In addition to our LDPA, lawmakers also heard directly from kidney advocates about the importance of expanding access to home dialysis and strengthening our federal investment in programs that promote kidney disease awareness, education, and research. As always, this year’s summit served as a reminder of the tremendous power of our community’s grassroots advocacy.

The day of meetings concluded with our annual Congressional Awards Reception, hosted by NKF Serving the National Capital Area. This event honored two outstanding champions in the fight against kidney disease, Reps. Bobby Rush (D-IL.) and Jason Smith (R-MO.), both of whom are champions for our Improving Access to Home Dialysis Act; as well as Beth Burbridge, this year’s Salick Patient Advocacy Award winner.

To see more of the many wonderful photos of the meetings that were held throughout the day, please visit the NKF Advocacy Twitter page and as always follow the hashtag #MyKidneyVoice. For the latest on our advocacy efforts, please stay tuned to our NKF Advocacy in Action blog and if you haven’t had a chance to do so yet, please take our National Kidney Month action, add your voice, and ask your lawmakers to join this movement.