March 2015

This week, ATS members from around the U.S. came to Washington D.C. to speak with members of Congress and their staffs to advocate for issues of importance to the ATS.  Over 40 ATS members and patients with lung disease participated in the event.  The key issues covered included:

• Supporting NIH Funding
• Supporting the SGR fix
• 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 D.C.  ATS members shared with Congress patient stories on how research is bringing new hope and new cures to patients with lung disease, that TB and antibiotic resistance continues to be a public health threat in the U.S. (and around the globe), 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 across the U.S.

ATS Annual Hill Day 2015 Photos