I was looking at Nicole's blog last night and I realized that I have not blogged in almost a week. Where did the time go? On Tuesday, April 21 we had the hearing for the House Committee for Public Health and then the next day was spent scrambling to make sure that the Committee members questions were answered. To my horror, Nicole, Adrienne and I started getting reports back from the Committee Representative's Staff that a lobbyist for the March of Dimes had been making the rounds to tell the Representatives that the March of Dimes was opposing "Greyson's Law", that we are anti- Cystic Fibrosis testing, and that we had never approached the MOD for their input in writing our bill!
We were SHOCKED.
I spent Wednesday on the phone all day trying to work out the misunderstanding and going toe to toe with the March of Dimes, a national organization, that has the resources to hire countless lobbyists and to throw up countless roadblocks.
In the end, the March of Dimes were also victims of the same lobbyists that were behaving so unprofessionally. The lobbyist left the committee hearing on the April 21st early and failed to hear the request by the Committee for a re-write of the bill to drop the language about Cystic Fibrosis that I never wanted in the bill from the beginning. So after the re- write, the main objection of the March of Dimes was no longer part of the bill.
I want to thank Morgan Sanders the President of Public Affairs for the Texas Chapter of the March of Dimes for her reaching out to Nicole and I about the misunderstanding and removing the opposition from "Greyson's Law" by the March of Dimes.
The rest of the week last week just flew by. Wednesday we also found out that the Senate Committee had scheduled the Senate version (SB1720) for it's hearing on Tuesday April 28th in the Senate Chambers at 0900. Friday was spent visiting every Committee member for the Senate Committee of Health and Human Services to lobby them and answer their questions about "Greyson's Law".
The Locomotive that is time is charging ahead.
We were SHOCKED.
I spent Wednesday on the phone all day trying to work out the misunderstanding and going toe to toe with the March of Dimes, a national organization, that has the resources to hire countless lobbyists and to throw up countless roadblocks.
In the end, the March of Dimes were also victims of the same lobbyists that were behaving so unprofessionally. The lobbyist left the committee hearing on the April 21st early and failed to hear the request by the Committee for a re-write of the bill to drop the language about Cystic Fibrosis that I never wanted in the bill from the beginning. So after the re- write, the main objection of the March of Dimes was no longer part of the bill.
I want to thank Morgan Sanders the President of Public Affairs for the Texas Chapter of the March of Dimes for her reaching out to Nicole and I about the misunderstanding and removing the opposition from "Greyson's Law" by the March of Dimes.
The rest of the week last week just flew by. Wednesday we also found out that the Senate Committee had scheduled the Senate version (SB1720) for it's hearing on Tuesday April 28th in the Senate Chambers at 0900. Friday was spent visiting every Committee member for the Senate Committee of Health and Human Services to lobby them and answer their questions about "Greyson's Law".
The Locomotive that is time is charging ahead.
No comments:
Post a Comment