With the Presidential election behind us and given the caveat of the political climate in Washington, this will be a particularly important time to advocate for children's issues and issues vital to NP practice and education. I invite all of you to visit the NAPNAP website and check out the Legislative Action Center developed by Allison Shuren, the lobbyist for NAPNAP. You can send your Congressperson or Senator an e-mail on children's issues and important issues related to NP education by typing in your zip code and accessing their email addresses. You can, also, locate upcoming bills before Congress and read updates of legislative and political issues that NAPNAP and Allison are working on. This makes it easier than ever to get involved and have our voices heard on Capitol Hill. You can email Allison through this site as well for particular issues that you want represented in Washington before the new House and Senate. Go to www.napnap.org and click on Legislative Action Center. For any of you who are interested, the 2001 National Nurse Practitioner Summit in Washington, DC, will be February 4 - 6, 2001, at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill. The theme is "Policy in Motion - NPs as Agents of Change" and is sponsored by ACNP. Participants will have the opportunity to meet their Senator or Representative and discuss issues important to NPs and children's health care. The Summit will feature speakers on legislative and policy issues before the new Congress. Please call ACNP at 202-546-4825 or visit their website at www.nurse.org/acnp. SCHIP (Clinton's State Children's Health Insurance Program) is an important issue for members to continue to follow nationally and in their home states. States that have had the most dramatic improvement in reducing the number of uninsured children are the states that have the lowest number of people without health insurance. Indiana, Ohio and Maine have been the most successful, and Texas and Arizona remain the states with the highest number of uninsured that have not been reached by SCHIP with 25% of the children uninsured (MOD survey, 2000). There is an excellent state comparison report on the HCFA website www.hcfa.gov/init/children.htm for you to check how your home state is doing currently on enrollment. The AMA-supported collective bargaining bill that I reported on previously was not successful this year and was tabled for the new Congressional session. The AMA intends to continue the fight in the next session. The bill would allow physicians to bargain collectively with HMOs and Managed Care Organizations to the disadvantage of NPs. I will keep the membership informed on this issue prior to the spring meeting. Help keep a political eye on Washington and children's issues in the New Year!

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