APTA was no stranger to working to shape policy, and leadership had always well understood the importance of maintaining a strong voice on Capitol Hill. To protect and champion the needs of the profession and its members APTA needed to be heard by lawmakers. That had been one reason for APTA’s move from New York City to Washington, D.C. But simply being closer to the nation’s capital and its decision makers wasn’t going to be enough.
APTA’s Executive Director Royce Noland knew how to make APTA’s voice heard when federal legislation affecting the association’s interest was in the making. One of his many achievements was establishing in 1973 the association’s Physical Therapy Political Action Committee (PT-PAC). And with that APTA’s political voice was born.
The vision of PT-PAC is to become the number-one health professions PAC by providing the resources to create a network of congressional champions on physical therapy issues. PT-PAC empowers the profession by bringing unity to the message, and strength and volume to the voice through numbers. PT-PAC is one of the most widely recognized political action committees on the Hill and, because of it, lawmakers hear and listen to the needs of the profession.