We are more than halfway through January and we’d like to highlight all of the milestones of 2013 as we look forward to another big year for JDRF Advocacy in 2014.

The second half of 2013 was a whirlwind for JDRF’s Advocacy team. It featured an outpouring of support for renewal of the SDP, starting in July with Children’s Congress—when more than 150 kids with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and their families descended upon Capitol Hill to urge their Members of Congress to continue to support the SDP. In August, JDRF’s Promise to Remember Me Campaign kicked off and continued the momentum of building strong, bipartisan support for the SDP renewal.

The 2013 Promise to Remember Me Campaign wrapped up officially on December 31st, but the Promise website continues to be updated—you can visit it for summaries and meeting photos from around the country. We were extremely pleased by the number of meetings held during this five-month timeframe—379 meetings were either held or scheduled, of which 25 meetings are still scheduled to take place in the next several weeks. If you joined or participated in leading a Promise Meeting, thank you!

Children’s Congress and the Promise Campaign continue to have a lasting impact on our efforts to renew the SDP. Through these events and the response from countless advocates to our alerts, in the fall, 337 Representatives and 76 Senators (more than 75 percent of Congress) signed on to SDP support letters circulated by Congressional Diabetes Caucus leaders. This is an increase of 65 Representatives and 4 Senators from a similar letter circulated last year, an amazing Advocacy accomplishment!

The SDP support letters helped demonstrate continued strong, bipartisan support for the program and put the SDP renewal in the best possible position as the Senate and House held discussions on the “doc-fix” package. As you may recall, the SDP has been renewed previously as part of the doc-fix package—legislation that prevents scheduled payment cuts from taking effect for physicians who treat Medicare patients, and that extends other health programs as well.

During the first week of December, the Senate Finance Committee included a five-year SDP renewal in its doc-fix package, really helping us end the year on a high note. On the other side of the Capitol, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing the first week of January to discuss the “health extenders” (of which the SDP is one) they might include in the doc-fix. The hearing focused on programs other than the SDP, given the already-demonstrated strong support for the program.

The challenges with the renewal lie ahead, as the House and Senate must now decide what to ultimately include in the final package and how to pay for it. As you can imagine, there are a number of different ways this renewal could go down. Funding is incredibly tight, and there are many competing spending priorities, not to mention limited time to address the doc-fix, as the deadline for a deal is March 31st. Even with strong, bipartisan support, the SDP could end up with a short-term renewal or nothing at all.

This is where you come in. In the coming weeks, as the SDP advances through the complicated legislative process, we will be reaching out with “action alerts.” (If you are not already an advocate, please sign up so you receive this info on a timely basis!) We cannot do it without you, and we will need your help more than ever! With a few simple clicks, you have the ability to email or call Congress and voice your support for renewing the SDP and other T1D research–related legislation. We ask that you watch for us and respond to the action alerts when we send them. Forwarding the messages on to your email contacts and posting them on your social media pages is another great way to help us increase response rates and recruit new advocates to further our mission.

JDRF is the only organization with a comprehensive plan to turn Type One into Type None. With your help, our voice will continue to be heard throughout Congress, making sure all our Federal Legislators know how important T1D research funding is to our loved ones, and to the future of beating this disease.