Breakthrough T1D applauds Congress for renewing and increasing the Special Diabetes Program (SDP), a critical program that now provides $160 million annually to type 1 diabetes (T1D) research through the National Institutes of Health. Congress also provided an equal amount to the SDP’s companion program – the Special Diabetes Program for Indians.
This renewal, which includes the first annual funding increase in 20 years and extends until December 2024, would not have been possible without our champions on Capitol Hill, including Senate Diabetes Caucus Co-chairs Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Congressional Diabetes Caucus Co-chairs Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL). It also would not have happened without tireless advocacy from the Breakthrough T1D community, which includes 239 meetings with Members of Congress during the Breakthrough T1D 2023 Children’s Congress this past summer, 368 more meetings held by Breakthrough T1D Advocates as a part of our recent Promise to Remember Me campaign, and powerful testimony from Breakthrough T1D CEO Aaron Kowalski, Ph.D. and Breakthrough T1D 2023 Children’s Congress Chair, Natalie Stanback, in a hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in December 2023. Breakthrough T1D Advocates from all over the country also played a pivotal role, contacting Members of Congress thousands of times to let them know the importance of the SDP—and that it should be renewed.
Breakthrough T1D celebrates this renewal and increase and looks forward to continuing to partner with the National Institutes of Health to improve the lives of everyone affected by T1D and accelerate research breakthroughs to cure, treat and prevent it.
March 11, 2024
