Has this avenue for funding ever been pursued???

There was an article in my local newspaper that stated there was (in this case specifically) about $7 million dollars for "Breast Cancer Reseach" under the Department of Defense (DOD) budget for 2013. According to this article a program has been setup under the DOD for medical research. The reason being is that any time there is a Military or DOD bill that comes up for a vote in Congress that it is almost certain to pass because Democrats and Repulicans do not like to vote against Military spending.

Well, when these bills come up they intentionally add funds for medical research and of course it passes, so the DOD has many millions of dollars designated for medical research within it's budget.

I believe this is the program that they were referring to "Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs". They have funds for MS, Autism, GWS and many, many other diseases. My question would be is who could be approached about possibly getting some funds through this avenue. Here is the link below and look at the "Research Programs" tab. It's impressive

http://cdmrp.army.mil/funding/default.shtml

FYI, CAA says they have gotten funding for a study from this source. Don't know if anyone else has. I didn't know that such a range of diseases including breast cancer get funding from here. Useful info, thx.

I had never heard of this either, but the article in the paper suggested that it was a "safety valve" of sorts to get funding when certain disease faced to much beuracracy(?) through normal channels, wher as this process usually has a relatively set budget, but if a member of Congress could make their case then their requested funding would go into this program since it is Congressionally mediated. Plus, the fact with it being under the DOD budget that it would virtually never be questioned in a very visual funding dispute as we are seeing now.

If we could find a member of Congress to make our case we could probably stand a good chance. We have twice the affected people that MS does. It is very closely related to Gulf War Syndrome as per Dr. Klimas. Lastly, is the economic impact it has on employers that have a sick person working when they are there and probably using all of their sick leave if it as an option plus even more time if short term disability is available.

New Jersey's governor Chris Christie has soom attachmsnt to CFS somehow. He has declared a day or week in New Jersey as CFS week or day and I do not know of any other state that has this.. I have Senator Lindsey Graham in my state and he is pretty open to ideas like this and even as a Republican he will not allow partisanship to interfer with him trying to negotiate withe Democrats on very specific health needs if he is convinced it is the right thing to do.

Cort may know of some avenues that may give us some more direct information other than what we are just seeing on this website

Interesting about Christie- yes the month of May is CFS month in NJ. A whole month, kind of cool.

I do think that getting Members of Congress to help us is the no. 1 key for us to get help in general.

If there is any possibility of getting any of the funding that goes under the department of defense budget it has to go through Congress just as the title suggest "Congressional Directed Medical Research Programs". NIH or DHHS has no input into his process.

If anybody knows anyone that has any connections to Congress, especially anyone in Congress that is connected to CFS somehow.

Whatever people might like to think of the military, there are a lot of very bright people working for them. GWS and related illnesses take military personel away from them. They can spend a fortune training a pilot or specialist, only to lose them. Things which potentially impact on the military vary from chronic post-conflict diseases to tropical diseases and NBC warfare. CFS is a very common disease, largely ignored. It should be a concern to any large military group.

The military spend a lot on research. While much of that has a pure warfare application, a lot has mainstream benefits. I do think its possible for apply and get more funding this way, but I suspect that it would require funding applications that differ from the usual. Maybe whoever handled the application at the CAA can be contacted to find out what is different in getting money this way.

Bye, Alex

Quite a few of those illnesses may eventually have roots that are tied in closely to ME/CFS. Dr. Klimas must feel there is some connection since she treats GWS patients. I'm pretty sure the prevalence of MS is higher in the military than in the general public.

I think a good bit of these funds are going to be steered towards illnesses that are hurting our veterans coming home from these wars. They have been long wars in very harsh conditions at times. Some of these soldiers were wound with friends that were killed by people they were sent to protect. Many will come home with very stressed adrenals. There immune systems will be weak. It would be good to get a funding request in now as the will want to have as much information if the veterans start having problems.

Fwiw, I read Vaccine A about GWI. He makes a very clear case for the military causing GWI by using oil-based adjuvants in their vaccines and then lying about it and the research on it. A lot of psychological nonsense has come out of the military research. I haven't read the other side, but considering how the govt has treated us, I think it's probable that funding for CFS from the military would go to BS CDC-style psych studies of tired people. just my impression for now.