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BCMS LEGISLATIVE AND                            BCMS physicians and staff visited with Rep. Rick Galindo (House Dist. 117)
      ADVOCACY NEWS                             during the March 3 visit to the Capitol. On hand for the visit were (from left)
                                                Ryan Van Ramshorst, MD; John Edwards, MD; Galindo; Pam Hall, MD; Mary
MARCH                                           Nava and Raymond Osbourn, MD.

FIRST TUESDAY                                                                                          Pausing for a photo with then-
WRAPS UP                                                                                            Rep. Jose Menendez, now Sen.
MENENDEZ AND                                                                                        Menendez, are (from left) Ryan
BERNAL SWORN IN                                                                                     Van Ramshorst, MD; Mary Nava;
                                                                                                    Menendez; Raymond Osbourn,
By Mary E. Nava, MBA                                                                                MD, and Pam Hall, MD.
BCMS Chief Governmental and
Community Relations Officer                                                                           Joining the BCMS group during
                                                                                                   the March 3 First Tuesdays visit in
   The second First Tuesdays visit to the                                                          the office of Sen. Donna Campbell
Capitol took place on March 3; many                                                                (Dist. 25) were members of the
thanks to the following individuals who                                                            Texas Asthma and Allergy Society,
participated: BCMS President Jim                                                                   led by BCMS member and the as-
Humphreys, MD; Mark Croley, MD: John                                                               sociation’s president, Theodore
Edwards, MD; Theodore Freeman, MD;                                                                 Freeman, MD (foreground).
Pam Hall, MD; Gabriel Ortiz, MD; Ray-
mond Osbourn, MD; Ryan Van                                                                            Raymond Osbourn, MD (seated
Ramshorst, MD, and BCMS Alliance Pres-                                                             at left), visits March 3 with Meagan
ident Rebecca Christopherson.                                                                      Collins (also seated), legislative as-
                                                                                                   sistant in the office of Speaker Joe
    The group participated in 13 office visits                                                     Straus, along with (standing from
with our elected officials and their staffs.                                                       left) Pam Hall, MD, Ryan Van
Several participants also stopped by the                                                           Ramshorst, MD, and John Ed-
House Public Health Committee hearing to                                                           wards, MD.
listen in on discussions about immuniza-
tions, in addition to signing cards in sup-       Bexar County representatives visit with Carmen Gaddis Tilton (third from
port of House Bill 465 by Rep. Donna            left), policy analyst in the office of Sen. Carlos Uresti (Dist. 19), during the March
Howard (D-Austin), which would give fam-        3 First Tuesdays.
ilies and individuals the freedom to opt out
of the state immunization registry.

    In addition, Rep. Diego Bernal (House
Dist. 123) and Sen. Jose Menendez (Senate
Dist. 26) were sworn in on March 3 and 4,
respectively. Bernal assumes former State
Rep. Mike Villarreal’s seat, and Menendez
replaces the seat previously held by Sen.
Leticia Van de Putte. Villarreal and Van de
Putte resigned to run for mayor of San An-
tonio.

   For local discussion on this and other
legislative advocacy topics, consider join-
ing the BCMS Legislative and Socioeco-
nomics Committee by contacting Mary
Nava at Mary.Nava@bcms.org.

28 San Antonio Medicine • April 2015
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