So, we finally made it here! After months and months of action alerts, tweets and Facebook posts, letters to the editors, and op-eds urging Members of Congress to support the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act (PCHETA/H.R.647), the legislation passed the House unanimously via voice vote after having garnered 296 cosponsors!

If enacted, PCHETA would establish education and training centers to prepare healthcare professionals for careers in hospice and palliative care, create career and award incentives to grow the hospice and palliative care workforce, and support continuing education and retraining of current hospice and palliative care professionals.

There are times where we as grassroots advocates ask ourselves “does this really matter” or “am I making a difference” and this should be validation that YES, with strategic and overwhelming grassroots action, our voice can be heard!

Let’s not allow this momentum to fade, but let it carry us into the next phase of advocacy action as we encourage the Senate to pass the bill. We are currently at 35 cosponsors on the Senate side and with additional grassroots activism, we could finally get the bill passed.

The HAN team has created an action alert geared toward gathering the Senate’s support. So, while we have Congress’s attention, TAKE ACTION NOW to ask the Senate to support PCHETA. We are one step closer to our goal and we must keep pushing!