Speakers for the World Sight Day Congressional Briefing on children’s vision. Left to Right: Dr. Stacy Lyons, Jeff Todd, Sara Brown, Dr. David Rein, Dr. John Omura, and Jenni Goddard.

Congressional Vision Caucus Co-Chair and co-sponsor of the EDVI Act Rep. Marc Veasey, (D-TX) also shared a special message for attendees of the briefing and attendees also heard from Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) who stopped by and gave remarks on his own experience with vision loss and the importance of advancing the EDVI Act.

As part of World Sight Day events, Prevent Blindness also met with Members of Congress to build support for this legislation—which has now gotten the endorsement from 93 groups nationwide.

Our efforts to advocate lawmakers continue to gain momentum as the EDVI Act now has 10 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, and we continue to work towards bipartisan companion legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate.

In Case You Missed It: Sara Brown, Director of Government Affairs, recently spoke with Healio about how it is going to take all of us coming together to encourage Congress to pass this essential bill.

You Can Still Take Action to Help Pass this Bill! Visit the EDVI Act Legislative Action Center to send a message to Congress. Stay tuned for more information and updates, and be sure to check your inbox for new opportunities to send Advocacy Action Alerts from Prevent Blindness!

Before leaving for October recess, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government open and operating, largely at Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 levels until December 20. When lawmakers return to Washington, DC on November 12 for a post-election “lame duck” session, they will need to decide how to finalize annual appropriations for FY 2025. They will also need to decide what additional legislation will be considered, including time-sensitive healthcare items and popular patient care priorities.

Prevent Blindness consistently advocates for funding for the Vision and Eye Health program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is an important public health program that collects and analyzes data on vision loss and eye disease in the United States. Both the House and the Senate have proposed legislation that includes a $6.5 million funding level for the CDC’s Vision Health Initiative (VHI), which is the same funding level as FY 2024. While Prevent Blindness recommends at least $10 million for the CDC’s VHI, we continue our efforts to inform lawmakers of the CDC’s efforts to use this funding for national-level surveillance of prevalence and risk of vision loss and eye disease through the Vision and Eye Health Surveillance System. 

Prevent Blindness is an active participant in numerous coalitions and working groups that collectively work together to achieve various outcomes on legislation and other matters of public policy. Below are a few examples of our recent work on behalf of patients with vision loss, eye disease, and blindness.

Safe Step Coalition urges Congress to include S. 1339, the Safe Step Act (which seeks to reform step therapy protocols in employer-based health plans) in one of the legislative packages that will be voted on before the end of the year.

Prevent Blindness supports efforts by the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers to establish an Office of Caregiver Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

March of Dimes urges Congress to include legislation to reauthorize the PREEMIE Act in end-of-year legislative business. 

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