June 5, 2015
A hotel parking lot somewhere outside Chicago
It is 1:30AM when we finally roll up to the parking lot of the hotel聽where we pick up the final member of our bird-dog crew. 聽Our final destination is Des Moines, Iowa, the site of our first event of the weekend, a meet and greet with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). 聽Senator Graham is chair of the Senate Foreign Operations and Related Programs subcommittee–and a key player in the future of global AIDS funding.
At this point we鈥檝e been driving for thirteen and a half hours straight–all the way from 麻豆原创鈥檚 headquarters in Sterling, Virginia. 聽But the schlep is worth it for a chance at one-on-one access to a key policymaker.
This is bird-dogging.
The chance to use your voice to get answers from policy makers directly. 聽At a public event, you ask a pointed question (with an implied answer) forcing the person in question to take a stand on a particular issue.
Bird-dogging at a Senator Rubio聽town hall meeting asking for his support for global AIDS funding
And the issue in question today is the dire state of global AIDS funding. 聽Just this past week the House submitted their version of the 2016 budget. 聽It fails to聽restore the devastating cuts made since 2010 to vital HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programming, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). 聽These cuts are beginning to manifest in a big way–this year we saw the number of persons enrolled for treatment through PEPFAR If PEPFAR funding is not restored we will continue to see drops in enrollment–which means less people on treatment, more deaths, and a real step backwards on the path to end AIDS.
There are many steps to a successful bird-dogging (in fact AMSAhas a 101 sheet ). 聽We start off on the right foot by arriving early–you鈥檝e gotta get good seats! 聽When the opportunity comes for a question you want to be front and center with the speediest hand-raise possible.
While we are waiting for the room to open, myself, Matt, fellow AMSAleader, and Paul, our colleague from our partner organization, HealthGAP, get together with our fellow bird-doggers Julie and Nicole–Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC) leaders at Iowa State. 聽We work on聽formulating聽the key ingredient–an air-tight question that will force a real answer. 聽In this case we want Senator Graham to commit to $300 million restoration of funding to PEPFAR in his budget bill this July. 聽Our question is:
鈥淪enator Graham, thank you for being a champion of global AIDS funding. 聽We know you鈥檝e supported this program, a legacy of President Bush, for a long time. 聽As you know President Obama has made cuts to PEPFAR every year since 2010. 聽We are starting to see real effects of this–this year we saw a precipitous decline in the number of people enrolling for treatment with PEPFAR. 聽Will you continue to support global AIDS and commit to restoring $300 million for PEPFAR this July in your budget, with or without sequestration?鈥�
Writing our questions out before bird-dogging helped to keep our ask succinct and direct
After the Senator’s speech, when the time comes for question and answer, I am seated front and center and fling my hand up high and fast.
It pays off. 聽I get the first question.
The senator鈥檚 answer is pretty close to what we want. 聽He explains what PEPFAR is to the crowded room, and even elicits an applause of support for the successes of the program. 聽But his answer isn鈥檛 quite complete. 聽He says he will try to support PEPFAR but does not repeat back to us the 300 million dollar figure. He says聽that sequestration makes promises like this difficult. 聽This is quite a common tactic–he has somewhat evaded my question in order to bring up a point he would rather discuss–in this case the national debt and the importance of reforming social security–one of his main campaign platforms.
Luckily, there is time left for more questions and we are many in number!
A few questions later, Paul, our partner from HealthGAP,聽is called upon. 聽He follows up the prepared question with a second that attempts to directly address sequestration before again asking the senator to commit to $300 million restoration.
No dice.
He is interrupted and the senator again derails to a different topic.
But luckily we get one more chance. 聽Nicole,聽Iowa state student and SGAC leader,聽is called on for the final question. 聽She rises and begins to address the number of lives lost if the funding is not restored before she is interrupted–鈥漎ou鈥檙e preaching to the choir,鈥� says the senator. 聽He begins a rather long digression into the troubles of budgets in general–if you fund one thing you must cut another, etc. 聽But importantly he ends by mentioning the exact dollar amount that we requested for PEPFAR–$300 million. 聽He鈥檚 committed to our specific ask publicly, on video–exactly as we had hoped.
(See the whole process from our first question to last )
After the event we make sure to finish up with some other key bird-dogging tactics–gumming up the handshake line and talking to media.
Gumming up the handshake line聽by having all of us聽line up to stop聽the senator to shake hands, ask follow up questions, and take photos
Eventually, we head out and meet to debrief over some celebratory pie. 聽We鈥檒l want to send out an update to our fellow bird-doggers across the country so they can use today鈥檚 success in their encounters with the Senator: 聽鈥淢y friends talked with you in Iowa and you promised them there that you would commit to $300 million restoration for PEPFAR鈥︹��
In addition, we can follow up in meetings with senator Graham鈥檚 staff and remind them of what we were promised in Iowa.
This is a huge win.
We begin our trip back exhausted but exhilarated. 聽There is palpable excitement in the air. 聽And it鈥檚 not just the promise of a glimpse of the on the way home (though this is admittedly a plus).
This is what it feels like to reach the people in power.
This is what it feels like to make change.
As physicians we are going to find ourselves hitting consistent barriers–maybe our patients won鈥檛 be able to afford medicine, or make it to their appointments, or follow through on our recommendations for diet, exercise, etc. 聽At those times, when we realize that all of our knowledge and experience won鈥檛 fix the structural problems our patients face, it is important for us not to step back and admit defeat. 聽It is important for us to remember that we can access those in power and in doing so that we can make change.
Alison Case is this year鈥檚 Education and Advocacy Fellow with 麻豆原创. 聽You can reach her at eaf@amsa.org. 聽She would love to help you get involved with AMSAadvocacy and to hear your ideas for how we can make change!
Matt Moy is 麻豆原创鈥檚 Healthcare for All Campaign鈥檚 Co-director. You can reach him at hcfa.chair@amsa.org. He would love to answer any and all questions you have in getting involved with activism with AMSAas a future health provider!
For more information about bird-dogging and other activist tactics visit 麻豆原创鈥檚 and AIDS Advocacy Network page.
And look out for our advocacy workshops–coming to your chapters this fall!
