The TICK Act

Your Help Still Needed:  TICK Act Update

By Jeff Crater

Why hasn’t the TICK Act passed yet?  And why is the Senate bill different from when we started? Isn’t there another bill in the House? How about the funding levels?  Is the TICK Act still a good bill?  Should I still contact my Senator?  How do I stay updated on the TICK Act?

These are the questions that the Lyme community is asking now.   Let’s take these on one by one.

• Why hasn’t the TICK Act passed yet? The TICK Act (S.1657), recently renamed the Kay Hagan TICK Act, is historic, bipartisan legislation that was introduced in May 2019 by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Tina Smith (D-MN), Angus King (ME), and was passed unanimously in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP) on October 31, 2019.  The bill was renamed after the recent passing of former U.S. Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) from a tick-borne disease. Now the bill with 23 co-sponsors needs to be approved by the entire Senate.  Should the Senate approve, the bill will be referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  More about that later.  These votes and deliberations are all part of our democratic process.  Many bills take years and years to progress.  The Senate TICK Act is progressing relatively quickly.
• And why is the Senate bill different from when we started? The legislation was changed in the HELP Committee because committee members felt that in the current political climate, there was a low chance of bringing the bill to the Senate floor for a vote, much less pass out of Committee.  To garner broader, bipartisan political support and meet the Committee requirement for non-disease specific legislation (i.e., Lyme v. vector-borne diseases) the bill was amended with a broader focus on vector-borne diseases, including tick-borne diseases and Lyme, the #1 vector-borne disease by a long-shot.  The bill could have been stopped absent this change.   So as a practical matter, the Senators are using another Senate process called “unanimous consent” to pass the full Senate.  Unanimous consent i.e., no opposition by a single Senator, requires all 100 Senators to vote yes on the bill.  Bills that use this process must be written to get 100% of the vote.  Anything controversial is taken out of the bill so it will get 100% of the vote.  And it’s working without sacrificing some basic policies that can ultimately advance a cure for Lyme disease.
• Isn’t there another bill in the House? The House has its TICK Act, H.R. 3073, introduced by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) with Rep. Colin Peterson (D-MN) as an original co-sponsor. With 52 co-sponsors, H.R. 3073 remains with the House Energy and Commerce Committee until a sufficient number of co-sponsors are reached, sometimes requiring the majority of the House.  We’ll be calling on your help in the House again soon and want you to know that we support both the House and Senate versions and ask you do the same.  We ultimately want the best provisions in both bills incorporated into a final bill for House-Senate passage for the President to sign.  For right now, our focus should be passing the TICK Act in the U.S. Senate.
• How about the funding levels? Funding levels are decided by the House and Senate appropriators, including Senator Susan Collins. But by having authorized funding levels in the TICK Act, this signals to the appropriators that vector-borne diseases, with Lyme as the #1 vector-borne disease, should be significantly funded. This would be a first and a major step forward to tackling Lyme disease.  The TICK Act has been garnering co-sponsors this past week – 23 now –from both sides of the aisle.  For more information, one can see the updated S.1657 bill which has been marked up here.  Remember, there are always changes in legislation as bills progress.  Change is normal.
• Is it still a good bill?   Here’s why –
• The bill in its new form authorizes $150M over 5 years. The last appropriation for Lyme disease was the Department of Defense’s CDMRP Fund for Tick-borne Disease, which has been funded at a rate of $20M over 4 years.  The TICK Act builds on past accomplishments by authorizing funds at more than 7 times the last legislation for Lyme.  (Note that this bill is an authorization bill and sets policy so the appropriations committee may act early next year on the Fiscal Year 2021 appropriations to fund this policy initiative.  So we’re not done yet even when this bill passes and is signed by the President..)
• The TICK Act requires HHS to Develop a National Strategy to expand research, improve testing, and coordinate common efforts with DOD, USDA, EPA, and the Departments of Interior and Homeland Security. This coordinated effort is sorely needed so the government can be affective and deliver better results.
• The bill reauthorizes Regional Centers of Excellence in Vector Borne Disease at $10 million for each of FY2021 – FY2026. These Centers collaborate with academia and public health agencies for surveillance, prevention, outbreak response.
• The bill authorizes grants at $20 million for each of FY2021 – FY2026 to state health departments to build a public health infrastructure for Lyme and other tick and vector-borne diseases and expand initiatives through public-private partnerships.
• Should I still contact my Senator? Yes!  23 Senators have co-sponsored the bill, but if your Senator(s) are not on this list, please write them.  It may appear old-fashioned, but I am told over and over your Senators listen when you call or write them.  You can find some updated template letters below.
• How do I stay updated on the TICK Act? It’s easy to stay updated on the latest status of the TICK Act. Just go to the TICK Act, S1657, on Congress.gov and select Alerts.  You’ll be prompted to log into your Congress.gov account or to create a new one.  Once you have an account, you can click on Alerts and be automatically emailed when the bill is changed.

Working together, we can influence the federal government to advance research and other key programs for Lyme disease.  Let’s do it!

Jeff Crater, of Falls Church, Virginia, has two children with Lyme disease. He is a co-founder and board member of Center for Lyme Action. Find me on Twitter @lyme_action.

The first document below is for senators. The second one is for representatives. Please fill in the text where indicated, print, and send to your senator and representative.