As reported by News Talk Florida, U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., joined U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., in pushing a bill to fund treatments to cure blindness.
Sessions, the chairman of the U.S. House Rules Committee, brought out the “Faster Treatments and Cures for Eye Diseases Act” on Wednesday, insisting it can help the 4.5 million Americans–more than 1 million of them being veterans–who suffer from blindness or impaired vision.
The bill would create a pilot program creating “Eye-Bonds” which the congressmen noted would “finance packages of loans to projects at small labs, universities, and other centers that can’t secure needed funding to help progress their research on treatments and cures for a wide range conditions and causes of severe vision impairment” and claimed “would mobilize as much as $1 billion, with virtually no taxpayer risk.”