NAEVR to Host Contact Congress Booth at American Academy of Optometry Annual Meeting in Chicago

NAEVR TO HOST CONTACT CONGRESS BOOTH AT AMERICAN ACADEMY OF OPTOMETRY ANNUAL MEETING IN CHICAGO

(Washington, D.C.) NAEVR will host a Contact Congress Booth from October 11-14 at the 2017 American Academy of Optometry Annual meeting being held in Chicago, Illinois, Executive Director James Jorkasky announced today.

NAEVR’s booth, located on Level 3 in the Lakeside Center Building of McCormick Place, outside the entrance to the Exhibit Hall, will allow meeting attendees to speak with NAEVR Director of Government Relations David Epstein about the latest National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Eye Institute (NEI) funding developments, as well as sending an email to their Congressional representatives. Mr. Epstein can also answer any questions about the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Vision Research Program (VRP), which was funded at $15 million in FY2017 to support research into military eye trauma injuries, including visual dysfunction from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

NAEVR invites all attendees to send an email letter thanking Congress for the $2 billion NIH increases in Fiscal Years (FY) 2016 and FY2017 and requesting it to finalize (FY) 2018 appropriations with another $2 billion NIH increase to a level of $36.1 billion, as proposed by the Senate. The Senate bill would also increase NEI funding by $26 million to $759 million. NAEVR is also calling on Congress to pass a bipartisan budget deal that would ensure predictable and sustained funding for the NIH, as the current budgetary caps prevent Congressional action to significantly increase NIH funding.

Congress passed a short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) in early September that funds the government from the start of FY2018 on October 1 through December 8, so it will need to take action by that time to avoid a government shutdown.

The National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (NAEVR) is a 501(c)4 non-profit advocacy coalition comprised of 55 professional, consumer, and industry organizations involved in eye and vision research. Visit the Web site at www.eyeresearch.org.