Current and aspiring U.S. senators and representatives who support family medicine's legislative and regulatory priorities, hold leadership positions on key committees and subcommittees, or are members of the Academy are eligible to receive campaign contributions from the Academy's federal political action committee, FamMedPAC. Those are the criteria in guidelines (Members Only) (PDF file: 4 pages/42 KB. More about PDFs.) recently approved by the FamMedPAC Board of Directors and published on the members' only Web site.
FamMedPAC received nearly $45,000 from delegates to the AAFP Congress of Delegates and members during the 2006 Scientific Assembly. Seventy-eight percent of delegates representing 31 constituent chapters contributed to the PAC, according to Mark Cribben, J.D., director of FamMedPAC. The donations brought total PAC receipts to almost $130,000. The board's goal is to reach $1 million in member contributions by the end of the 2006 election cycle.
The issues that will steer the PAC's contribution decisions are medical liability reform, Medicare physician payment reform, Medicaid reform, Title VII funding and health care coverage for all.
"If its full fundraising potential is realized, FamMedPAC can have a significant impact on the 2006 election," say the guidelines adopted by the FamMedPAC board. "FamMedPAC can make maximum contributions to vulnerable friendly candidates, establish new relationships with key senators and representatives, contribute to the national campaign committees, and make contributions in important open seat and viable challenger races."
A FamMedPAC fundraising letter was recently mailed to all members of the Academy.
FamMedPAC guidelines focus contributions on members of important committees which have either primary or partial jurisdiction over health care legislation, including the U.S. House Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, Appropriations, Budget, Judiciary and Rules committees. On the Senate side, members of the Finance; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Appropriations; Budget; Commerce, Science and Transportation; and Judiciary committees will be the focus of FamMedPAC contributions.
For open seats or viable challenger races, a candidate will have to demonstrate support for AAFP's key issues by completing a candidate questionnaire.
Other contribution options for FamMedPAC are giving to campaign committees of both parties, post-election debt reduction funds for elected lawmakers, and leadership political action committees established by senators and representatives to raise funds that contribute to peers' races.
