[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 158 (Tuesday, September 30, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2188-E2189]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          EARMARK DECLARATION

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MARIO DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 29, 2008

  Mr. DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Republican 
Leadership standards on earmarks, I am submitting the following 
information for publication in the Congressional Record regarding 
earmarks I received as part of H.R. 2638, the Fiscal Year 2009 
Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing 
Appropriations Act.


                    Center for Ophthalmic Innovation

  Requesting Member: Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25).
  Bill Number: H.R. 2638, Report 110-181.
  Account: RDT&E.
  Legal Name of Requesting Entity: University of Miami.
  Address of Requesting Entity: 1252 Memorial Dr, Ashe Administrative 
Building Room 230, Coral Gables, FL 33146.
  Description of Request: I received an appropriation of $2,400,000 for 
the Center for Ophthalmic Innovation at the Bascom Palmer Eye 
Institute. This funding will be used to help develop new modalities of 
treatment and ensure direct treatment of military personnel through the 
development of relevant ophthalmic telemedicine initiatives. This 
funding will aid the Center in continuing research on advanced ocular 
imaging technology enabling more accurate diagnosis of hereditary 
retinal disease, better monitoring of treatments for wet and dry 
macular degeneration, rapid and cost-effective screening for diabetic 
retinopathy, better evaluation of refractive surgical outcomes, and the 
ability to qualify dry eye disease. Additionally, the Center is 
developing new operational systems for ophthalmic telemedicine to bring 
high quality eye disease screening to military personnel as well as 
every United States citizen. Eye health is vitally important to the 
Department of Defense as active military personnel must have perfect 
visual acuity to carry out their duties effectively. At least 16 
percent of war casualties are due to eye trauma, and millions of 
retired military personnel suffer from age-related eye disease.


                             Spending Plan

  Imaging and Telemedicine--$445,205.
  Prevention and Restoration--$454,797.
  Eye Disease Project Prevention--$245,853.
  Minor equipment and supplies--$120,945.
  Total Direct Cost--$1,266,799.
  Indirect Costs--$653,201.
  TATRAC 20 percent--$480,000.
  Grand Total--$2,400,000.


                 Dual-Use Technologies for Bio-Defense

  Requesting Member: Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25).
  Bill Number: H.R. 2638, Report 110-181.
  Account: DTRA.
  Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Florida Gulf Coast University.
  Address of Requesting Entity: 10501 FGCU Blvd. South, Fort Myers, FL 
33965-6565.
  Description of Request: I received an appropriation of $1,200,000 for 
the Dual Use Technologies for Bio-Defense: Drug Design and Delivery of 
Novel Therapeutics project. This funding will be used to continue the 
project which focuses on state-of-the-art research on technologies to 
treat bio-threat agents and develop methods of bio-defense for combat 
and civilian use. Scientists at Florida Gulf Coast University, FGCU, 
are utilizing a library of novel small molecule chemistries that have a 
high and selective binding affinity for a broad range of bio-threat 
agents. There is a critical need for new technologies that can be used 
for the treatment and inactivation of bio-threat agents and pathogens 
important to bio-defense efforts. Viruses and other pathogens can be 
attacked either externally while they are being transmitted between 
host cells or internally once they have infested a host cell and are 
actively replicating. New technologies developed at FGCU have the 
promise to revolutionize drug targeting by using molecular methods to 
design novel therapeutic molecules and by using physical methods to 
deliver drugs to the specific site. These technologies can be used to 
overcome one of the primary limitations of modern pharmacology, the 
inability to specifically target therapeutic molecules, and have 
applications for infectious diseases, cancer aging, and cardiopulmonary 
diseases.


                             Spending Plan

  Personnel--$600,000.
  Equipment--$100,000.
  Supplies--$180,000.
  Travel--$20,000.
  Indirect--$300,000.
  Grand Total--$1,200,000.


                         Jackson Health Center

  Requesting Member: Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25).
  Bill Number: H.R. 2638, Report 110-181.
  Account: RDT&E.

[[Page E2189]]

  Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Jackson Health System.
  Address of Requesting Entity: 1611 NW 12th Ave. Miami, FL 33136-1096.
  Description of Request: I received an appropriation of $6,000,000 for 
the Military Trauma Care Training and First Responder Information 
Technology Initiatives at Jackson Memorial Health System in partnership 
with the Army Trauma Training Center, ATTC, situated in the University 
of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center. The ATTC has functioned as 
the national training center for U.S. Army Forward Surgical Teams 
(FSTs) since 2001. Monthly, the ATTC conducts 14-day training program 
for deploying FSTs in order to improve clinical skills and teamwork. 
The resources of the Ryder Trauma Center and the William Lehman Injury 
Research Center present a unique opportunity to develop and evaluate 
new and innovative diagnostic and treatment tools and point-of-care 
information systems to maximize the care of injured soldiers. The 
Center is developing diagnostics and devices to enhance the capability 
of first-responders to effectively treat casualties as close to the 
geographic location and time of the injury as possible. Since January 
2001, the Army Trauma Training Center, in conjunction with the Ryder 
Trauma Center, has trained over 25 forward surgical teams and more than 
650 Army personnel in active duty and reserve components--\2/3\ of all 
forward surgical teams in the U.S. Army--supporting over 75,000 combat 
troops.


                             Spending Plan

  Salaries--$1,769,194.
  Faculty--$419,195.
  Staff--$1,349,209.
  Equipment--$1,377,000.
  Telemedicine Equipment--$300,000.
  Minor Other Equipment--$70,000.
  Software Licenses--$120,000.
  Minor supplies--$387,000.
  Programming Consultants--$500,000.
  Total--$3,146,194.
  Indirect Costs--$853,806.
  TATRC 20 percent--1,000,000.
  Grand Total--$5,000,000.
  In order to facilitate the speedy printing of your submission, we 
also suggest that you take advantage of the Clerk's ability to accept 
extensions of remarks for the Congressional Record in electronic form. 
Full instructions can be found on the Clerk's website, but please keep 
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