The Special Diabetes Programs, or SDP, are a pair of government-funded initiatives which serve two key purposes:

• Carrying out research on type 1 diabetes prevention, treatment, and cures
• Funding diabetes prevention, education, and management programs for American Indian and Alaska Native populations, who are disproportionately affected by type 2 diabetes.

The SDP has bipartisan support in Congress and has continuously received funding for 20 years (most recently by a 92-8 vote in the Senate in 2015). But currently, the proposed bill to fund the federal government for the upcoming year leaves the SDP out.

If the SDP loses funding, it would mean the loss of one of the largest sources of funding for diabetes research in the United States, about $150 million dollars per year for type 1 research and another $150 million per year for prevention and treatment in American Indian and Alaska Native populations. For comparison, each of those amounts equates to the annual support of the two biggest foundations supporting type 1 research combined – JDRF (which gives about $100 million per year to type 1 research) and The Helmsley Charitable Trust (about $50 million per year).

This cut would also mean the loss of an initiative that has already supported a number of important successes and major steps forward. SDP-funded initiatives have made major progress in advancing automated insulin delivery (AID) technology, improving treatment of retinopathy (eye damage) associated with diabetes, and cutting the rate of kidney failure among Native Americans with diabetes by more than 50%.

In short, losing the SDP would be hugely damaging to continuing progress in diabetes research. JDRF has shared this link to help you e-mail your members of Congress and encourage them to vote NO on any resolution that doesn’t continue to fund the SDP. It’s not too late to for the SDP to get funded for the next one (or more!) years, and your voice will make a difference in helping to guarantee that this happens.