PBA President's Day Advocacy Week

Thank you for participating in our 2010 advocacy efforts and our President's Day Congressional District visits February 16-19, 2010. As you know, in honor of the President's Day holiday on February 15, we are asking you to meet with your Representative and Senators while they are home on recess from Congress next week.

Prevent Blindness America is advocating for FY 2011 resources to support and strengthen programs to preserve sight, research the causes of eye disease and vision loss, improve early detection and diagnosis of eye disease and vision loss, and advance prevention and treatment efforts for patients.

Share your story of vision and eye health with your Member of Congress! Please help Prevent Blindness America advocate for vision and eye health by sharing your story with your Representative and Senators. Eye and vision health issues affect all Americans.

For meeting tips and materials, go to:
http://www.preventblindness.org/news/releases/012110_2.html.

And thank you for being an eye and vision health advocate!

Prevent Blindness America 2010 Federal Legislative Agenda

Each year, Prevent Blindness America advocates for vision and eye health at the state and federal levels. Our federal legislative agenda for 2010 is as follows:

1. Provide $5 million in FY 2011 for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Vision Health Initiative. Additional FY 2011 resources will support: strengthened state-based public health efforts to address vision and eye health; development of additional evidence-based public health interventions that improve eye health among the nation's most at-risk and underserved; and expanded initiatives to address the growing problem of diabetes among children and the associated impacts of diabetic retinopathy, which can develop later in life.
2. Support increased FY 2011 funding for the National Eye Institute 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.
3. Join the Congressional Vision Caucus (CVC). The CVC is a bipartisan, bicameral group of Members of Congress dedicated to strengthening and stimulating a national dialogue on the importance of vision health. The CVC is co-chaired by Representatives Gene Green (D-TX), David Price (D-NC), Patrick Tiberi (R-OH), and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).

Get involved in Prevent Blindness America's 2010 advocacy efforts! Go to: http://www.preventblindness.org/news/releases/012110_2.html