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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Charles G. Huntington, PA, MPH, Center for Public Health and Health Policy, University of Connecticut Health Center, 263 Farmington Avenue, MC 2928, Farmington, CT 06092-2928, 860-679-7968, huntington@adp.uchc.edu

The effectiveness of public health practice depends heavily on well-crafted authorizing statutes and generous appropriations from the federal and state legislatures. Responsibility for ensuring positive public health legislation falls primarily to public health professionals, who are best positioned to guide the substance of proposed bills and articulate the impact of proposed legislation on the public's health. Without the involvement of public health professionals in the legislative process, both the authorization of public health programs and their funding are likely to be suboptimal. With the appropriate involvement of public health professionals, the reverse is true.

This session seeks to increase the involvement of public health professionals in the legislative process and to make that involvement more efficient and effective. The basic processes by which legislative proposals are considered and adopted are explained and demystified. The skills of legislative advocacy are reviewed and mapped to the basic competencies possessed by all public health professionals. The major components of a legislative effort (letter writing, phone calls, legislative visits, grassroots mobilization, and coalition efforts) are presented as a continuum that allows the participants to choose their level of involvement. These components are also discussed in the context of an association-guided legislative campaign. Finally, federal lobbying regulations and, in general terms, state lobbying restrictions are reviewed. The entire session is organized around the handbook, "Legislative Advocacy for Public Health," which is available for download from the APHA website. The use of the handbook in guiding future legislative advocacy efforts is reviewed.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will identify three principles underlying effective legislative advocacy.
• Participants will describe the basic components of a legislative advocacy effort (letter writing, phone calls, legislative visits, grassroots mobilization, and coalition efforts).
• Participants will relate the basic components of a legislative advocacy effort to an association-guided legislative campaign.
• Participants will describe the appropriate use of the handbook, Legislative Advocacy for Public Health.
• Participants will experience significantly less intimidation at the prospects of being directly involved in legislative advocacy.

Keywords: Advocacy, Legislative

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation