ARVO Program Committee Members Take Value of Research Message to Capitol Hill

Dr. Krishna Sharma, Dr. Ron Adelman, Dr. Jeff Boatright and ARVO Executive Vice President Dr. Paul Kaufman

On January 20, several members of the Program Committee joined Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Executive Director Joanne Angle and NAEVR Executive Director James Jorkasky in making more than 20 visits to the Capitol Hill offices of their Members of Congress. Dr. Krishna Sharma, Dr. Ron Adelman, Dr. Jeff Boatright and ARVO Executive Vice President Dr. Paul Kaufman (see photo, left to right) conveyed two messages: appropriately fund the National Eye Institute (NEI) in the Fiscal Year 2007 appropriations process, and ensure that any activity to reauthorize the National Institutes of Health (NIH) does not cluster Institute budgets, potentially jeopardizing the NEI's ability to lead our nation's vision research portfolio. In that regard, ARVO members met with the lead Republican and Democratic staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over NIH, to discuss whether action is expected this session on a legislative draft introduced in August 2005. Click here to view the vision community's position on NIH reauthorization legislation.