Washington, D.C. -- Senator Susan Collins has been presented with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's (JDRF) 2004 Congressional Leadership Award. The award was presented by Keith Goodwin, the Maine Chapter President, during JDRF's annual conference in Washington, DC. JDRF's web site announces: "JDRF's Congressional Leadership Award was presented to Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) who addressed the advocates before their day on Capitol Hill. Also, Representative John Porter (R-IL) who is retiring at the end of this year was given the JDRF Lifetime Achievement Award. Both Senator Collins and Rep. Porter have been tireless champions of diabetes research funding and offered their congratulations to JDRF for their effective and thoughtful advocacy. Over 500 JDRF advocates met with their Members of Congress on Capitol Hill to discuss increased funding for diabetes research and doubling the budget for the National Institutes of Health." As the founder and co-chair of the Senate Diabetes Caucus, Senator Collins is a leading Senate champion for the 16 million Americans with diabetes and has successfully fought to increase funding for diabetes research and to promote better health care for people with diabetes. Senator Collins has also worked successfully to extend and increase funding for two special diabetes research programs, one focused on juvenile diabetes and the other focused on diabetes in Native Americans.
Senator Collins introduced legislation to require Medicare to cover insulin infusion pumps for beneficiaries with Type I diabetes. She also introduced the Pancreatic Islet Cell Transplantation Act, which will help to advance tremendously important research that holds the promise of a cure for the more than one million Americans with Type 1, or juvenile diabetes. ###