This week is Prevent Blindness America's Eyes on Capitol Hill Week

Join our Capitol Call-in and Be a Voice for Vision!

Prevent Blindness America is hosting our fifth annual Eyes on Capitol Hill advocacy campaign March 9-12, 2010. We start the week off with a national Capitol Call-in on March 9. This event is a unique opportunity for our advocates across the country to get involved and educate lawmakers about vision and eye health.

Prevent Blindness America respectfully calls upon Congress to take these actions to help prevent blindness and preserve sight:

1. Increase FY 2011 funding to $5 million for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention's Vision Health Initiative. This level of investment will help sustain and expand efforts to address the growing public health threat of preventable vision loss among older American's low-income and underserved populations.

2. Request $1.2 million in FY 2011 to support the Maternal and Child Health Bureau's (MCHB) National Universal Vision Screening for Young Children's Coordinating Center (Center). This level of funding will support: 1) a broader partnership and expanded coordination between the Center, the state agencies that administer the Title V MCHB Block Grant, and other state public health entities to improve the early identification of vision problems in children, and 2) a consensus conference involving MCHB, CDC, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Eye Institute, and the Office of Head Start to establish national standards for vision screening in young children.

3. Support increased FY 2011 funding for the NEI at the National Institutes of Health. These funds will continue to bolster essential efforts to identify the underlying causes of eye disease and vision loss, improve early detection and diagnosis of eye disease and vision loss, and advance prevention, treatment efforts and health information dissemination.

4. Join the Congressional Vision Caucus (CVC). The CVC is a bipartisan, bicameral group of Members of Congress who work collaboratively to raise awareness among their colleagues and Congressional staff about: the growing number of Americans at risk for age-related eye diseases; the need for greater understanding of the personal risk of vision loss and ways in which eyesight can be preserved and protected; and the treatment and rehabilitation services that are needed to address eye health and vision loss.

For more information about Prevent Blindness America's Capitol Call-in and to obtain your Representative and Senators' phone numbers, go to:
https://secure2.convio.net/pba/site/Advocacy?alertId=175&pg=makeACall&JServSessionIdr004=rjbqd84bu2.app43a

Thank you for being a Voice for Vision!