Hill Day

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Hill Day 2015

 

ATS members from around the country came to Washington, DC, on Thursday, March 19, 2015, to speak with members of Congress and their staffs to advocate for issues of importance to the ATS. More than 40 ATS members and patients with lung disease participated in the event.  The key issues covered included:

  • Supporting NIH Funding
  • Supporting a fix to the Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR)
  • Supporting TB control programs
  • Addressing antibiotic resistance
  • Opposing legislation to exempt cigars from FDA regulation

The timing of the ATS Hill Day was fortuitous in that bipartisan legislation to fix SGR was introduced the same day that ATS members were in Washington DC.  ATS members shared with Congress patient stories on how research is bringing new hope and new cures to patients with lung disease. ATS members also informed Congress that TB and antibiotic resistance continues to be a public health threat around the world, that cigars are bad for public health—especially fruit-flavored cigars that are being marketed to kids—and that Congress’s inability to fix SGR is a real problem for physicians.