[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4488]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



   FOUNDATION FIGHTING BLINDNESS MAKES CONGRESS AWARE OF EYE DISEASES

  (Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, representatives from the Foundation 
Fighting Blindness are visiting congressional offices this week to 
discuss the importance of funding research initiatives at the National 
Eye Institute.
  This week my colleagues received a set of paper glasses which may 
help them to understand what individuals suffering from retinitis 
pigmentosa and macular degeneration see.
  Isaac, Daria and Ilana Lidsky, young adults from my congressional 
district, are among the over 6 million Americans who suffer from these 
retinal degenerative diseases. Another 9 million Americans have pre-
symptomatic signs of retinal degeneration and as the baby-boomer 
generation ages, diseases such as these are poised to skyrocket.
  Promising experiments have already been discovered in retinal 
transplantation and in gene and pharmaceutical therapies. However, 
additional funding for the National Eye Institute is urgently needed to 
advance these promising treatments to clinical trials.
  I urge my colleagues to consider how life is viewed through the eyes 
of those going blind and to consider an increase to the National Eye 
Institute at a percentage higher or equal to the other institutes of 
the National Institutes of Health.

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