PCRM's Legislative Fund Educates and Legislates

If you find yourself thinking, “There ought to be a law…,” the new PCRM Legislative Fund is probably already working to make it happen. PCRM’s work on Capitol Hill has grown in recent years. So in December, we created the PCRM Legislative Fund to shape important public policy reforms.

The PCRM Legislative Fund is an affiliate organization of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and is a voice for change not only on Capitol Hill but in state legislatures. As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, the PCRM Legislative Fund has the ability to expand PCRM’s influence because it is not limited to the same lobby restrictions as a public charity, and its efforts are dedicated to shaping important public policy reforms in the areas of ethics and health.

The PCRM Legislative Fund’s 2010 agenda includes working to persuade Congress to:

• pass the Great Ape Protection Act, which would phase out the use of chimpanzees in invasive research and retire over 1,000 federally owned chimpanzees to permanent sanctuary;
• make the BEST Practices Act a law requiring the Department of Defense to stop harming and killing monkeys, pigs, and goats when training military personnel to treat chemical and combat trauma casualties, and instead use more effective, human-based training; and
• include language in the Child Nutrition Act to help schools offer students healthy plant-based lunches and nondairy beverages that would reverse America’s obesity epidemic and other diet-related diseases that stress our health care system.