Archive for February, 2011
Temple Grandin and the American Meat Institute
Thursday, February 24th, 2011Shortly after arriving in the office yesterday I was whisked away to a hill briefing by the newest GRD Assistant Director, Dr. Whitney Miller. She mentioned something about meat and Temple Grandin and I followed her across the street to the Dupont Circle Metro stop. After navigating the tunnels and halls between the Canon and [...]
Cutbacks
Thursday, February 24th, 2011This week on The Hill the buzzwords have been cutbacks, cost cutting and decreasing spending. Newly elected Tea Party memebers are calling for severe cuts in federal spending across the board evidenced by the continuing list of proposed amendments to H.R. 1 to decrease budget allocations for everything from the military presence in Afghanistan to eliminating funding [...]
The Pain
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011The President’s Valentine’s Day gift to the nation was the release of his budget proposal for 2012. There were few areas of the budget that received increases in funding like research and development but the majority of programs received cuts across the board. Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew was quoted as saying [...]
3rd Annual Veterinary Student Legislative Fly In
Monday, February 14th, 2011On February 7th and 8th we had approximately 60 veterinary students visit Washington D.C. for our 3rd annual Fly-In. This event serves several purposes: encouraging students to get involved in the legislative process, educating students about some of the challenges currently facing our profession and lobbying our elected officials for legislation to benefit veterinary medicine [...]
World Veterinary Year 2011
Thursday, February 10th, 2011Friday February 4th FSIS hosted their opening ceremonies for World Veterinary Day in the Jefferson Auditorium at the USDA Building. The cermony opened with Dr. Elisabeth Hagen, undesecretary of food safety and physician, speaking on the importance of veterinarians in food safety and public health. Dr. Ron DeHaven, executive president of the AVMA was the keynote speaker [...]
Reaching Out
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011The term “reaching out” is used in Washington D.C. by lobbists and legislators alike. Essentially it is the phrase used to describe the attempts made to obtain an audience with your desired legislator to discuss an issue of importance. The past few days I have been up to my elbows in “reaching out”. As an AVMA [...]
The Lacey Act
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011Welcome to the beginning of the 112th Congress. This is the time of year when newly elected officials are being assigned to committees and finding their way around the capitol and seasoned legislators are working on reintroducing acts and amendments that did not make it to the voting floor during the 111th congress. Yesterday we visited Senator Bill [...]