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NAEVR Scorecard Legislative Issues

NAEVR Support for NEI and NIH Funding in Fiscal Year (FY) 2007
(Refer to the Advocacy Center’s NIH/NEI Appropriations section for details)

In the FY 2007 Congressional budget and appropriations process, NAEVR advocated for NIH funding at $29.8 billion, which represents a 5 percent increase over the FY2006 funding level of $28.5 billion, and NEI funding at $711 million, which represents a 6 percent increase over the FY2006 funding level of $666.8 million. The $711 million funding goal for the NEI represents an amount that the community of support for eye and vision research maintains is necessary to fully advance the breakthroughs resulting from NEI’s basic and clinical research to prevent eye disease and restore vision.

The President’s budget proposal and accompanying House of Representatives FY2007 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) appropriations bill would flat fund the NIH at the FY2006 level and cut NEI funding by 0.8 percent, or $5.3 million. The FY2007 Senate LHHS appropriations bill would increase NIH funding by $200 million, as well as fund the NEI at $666.9 million, which would negate the proposed cut contained in the President’s budget/House bill and increase NEI funding by $600,000 over FY2006. As of the August Congressional recess, neither the House nor Senate had taken floor action on respective LHHS appropriations bills.

Key NAEVR actions in this funding cycle, which are detailed in the quarterly Contributor Reports posted on this Web site, have included:

  • Prior to the release of the President’s FY2007 budget, distributing to all Capitol Hill offices NAEVR’s December 2005 Special Report to the White House Conference on Aging entitled The National Eye Institute Responds to the Growing Public Health Problem of Age-related Eye Disease.


  • Advocating extensively on Capitol Hill for NIH/NEI funding increases by NAEVR leadership, staff and member networks. [See the NAEVR in Action section of this Web site’s home page for summaries of key Capitol Hill visits.]


  • Working collaboratively with medical research advocacy coalition partners to increase FY2007 House and Senate Budget Resolution funding levels for LHHS programs by $7 billion over that in the President’s budget request. The House LHHS bill represents a $4 billion increase for LHHS programs over that in the President’s budget, although none of this increase was allotted to NIH/NEI funding. The Senate LHHS bill represents a $5 billion increase for LHHS programs, with a proposed $200 million increase for NIH and $5.4 million increase for the NEI over the FY2006 funding level.


  • Submitting comprehensive testimony to the April 6, 2006, hearing of the House LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee. The House LHHS appropriations bill reported out of Committee lauds the NEI for the collaborative efforts of its Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network to test innovative treatments for diabetic eye disease.


  • Submitting comprehensive testimony to the May 19, 2006, hearing of the Senate LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee and presenting witness testimony about potential missed opportunities to follow up on previous research into age-related macular degeneration (AMD) due to the President’s budget proposed funding level. The Senate LHHS bill reported out of Committee lauds the NEI-funded discovery of gene variants strongly associated with the risk of developing AMD and urges NEI to pursue the development of appropriate diagnostics and treatments.


  • Educating Congressional staff about new NEI research developments through the quarterly NAEVR E-ZINE distributed electronically to Capitol Hill offices and following up on the Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (AEVR) Congressional Briefings with key Hill visits.

NIH Reauthorization
(Refer to the Advocacy Center’s NIH Reauthorization section for details)

  • As its priority issue, NAEVR educated Congressional staff, especially those in committees of jurisdiction over NIH (House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee), that any legislative actions to reauthorize the NIH must not jeopardize the NEI Director’s authority and accompanying dedicated budget to lead the nation’s vision research commitment.

Defense-related Eye and Vision Research
(Refer to the Advocacy Center’s Defense-related Eye Research section for details)

  • NAEVR worked with House and Senate champions to ensure that the FY2007 Defense appropriations bill retained the eligibility of eye and vision research for funding within the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Congressionally-directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP). Eye and vision research was initially made eligible in the FY2006 DOD funding process.

Expansion of the Current Embryonic Stem Cell Policy
(Refer to the Advocacy Center’s Stem Cell Policy section for details)

  • NAEVR strongly supported the May 2005 House passage of a bill to expand the Administration’s current embryonic stem cell policy and worked closely with Senate champions to ensure passage in the Senate. Although the Senate passed the bill, there were not sufficient votes in the Senate or House to override a Presidential veto.