This week, 30 ATS members and patient advocates traveled to Capitol Hill to advocate for increased research funding, COPD awareness, patient supplemental oxygen access and domestic tuberculosis legislation. ATS and PAR members came from 20 states across the country including Alabama, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico and Washington, and met with 60 House and Senate offices to advocate for these ATS federal legislative priorities. ATS members met with key congressional offices including Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), chair of the Senate Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations subcommittee, which determines NIH funding with its House counterpart, and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN).

ATS Council of Chapter Representatives Jag Sunderram, MD, said, “The ATS Hill Day provides an opportunity for clinicians and researchers to partner with our patient groups and meet with our members of Congress to discuss ATS’s legislative priorities, including the need to increase NIH funding, support efforts to eliminate TB in the US, raise awareness of COPD and improve patient access to supplemental oxygen.” He continued, “Hill Day visits are a unique experience that allows us to understand advocacy, establish relationships with our legislators and advance respiratory health.”

From left to right Sheylan Patel, MD, Jennifer Trevor, MD,. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL), Veena Antony, MD, and Samya Nasr, MD.