For more information:
Prevent Blindness
Whitney Anderson
Phone: (800) 301-2020 ext. 105
Email address: [email protected]
This year’s Eyes on Capitol Hill meetings have been scheduled to specifically ask elected officials to:
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Provide at least $3.3 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 to maintain vision and eye health efforts at the Vision Health Initiative (VHI) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Adequate FY 2019 resources will allow the CDC to apply previous CDC vision and eye health research findings to develop effective prevention and early detection interventions, with an initial focus on early detection of diabetic retinopathy.
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Provide $3.5 million to the Maternal and Child Health Bureau at the Health Resources and Services Administration (MCHB-HRSA) to directly address early identification and treatment of children’s vision problems.
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Provide at least $4,000,000 for the Glaucoma Project at CDC. The program is intended to reach those populations experiencing the greatest disparity in access to glaucoma care through an integrated collaboration among private and public organizations.
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Provide $800 million to the National Eye Institute (NEI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for FY 2019 in order to bolster efforts to identify the underlying causes of eye disease and vision loss, improve early detection and diagnosis, and advance prevention and treatment efforts.
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Protect the CDC’s public health response capabilities from a drastic loss of funding in the absence of the Prevention and Public Health Fund by providing a corresponding budget increase in FY 2019.
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Join the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Vision Caucus (CVC) The CVC, seeks to achieve its goals of strengthening a national dialogue on the importance of vision health through Congressional briefings, Dear Colleague letters, and press conferences. Ohio Congressman, Steve Stivers, serves as one of the four co-chairs of this bipartisan caucus.
For more information on Eyes on Capitol Hill, or Prevent Blindness and its advocacy initiatives, please call 800-331-2020 or visit www.pbohio.org.
About Prevent Blindness
Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is the nation’s leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. The Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness is Ohio’s leading volunteer nonprofit public health organization dedicated to prevent blindness and preserve sight. We serve all 88 Ohio counties, providing direct services to more than 1,000,000 Ohioans annually and educating millions of consumers about what they can do to protect and preserve their precious gift of sight. For more information or to make a contribution, call 800-301-2020. Or, visit us on the web at www.pbohio.org or facebook.com/pbohio and Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/PB_Ohio.