Congressional Open Houses

I attended two different congressional open houses this week. I saw Keith Ellison in North Minneapolis on Monday and Betty McCollum in Saint Paul on Wednesday. Each open house was extremely effective at addressing the constituents and fielding their questions.

Representative Ellison hosted his congressional open house in his office building. It was informal and he spoke with all attendees. I, along with residents Andrew Bzowyckyj and Alison Knutson, had the opportunity to speak with Representative Ellison regarding health care and pharmacy. I was impressed with his willingness to listen and consider our perspective. This experienced reinforced how pivotal it is for pharmacy to share our perspective on legislation.

Representative McCollum hosted an open house at the Stepping Stone Children’s Theater in Saint Paul. This event was very structured and geared towards maintaining funding for the arts. It was a good opportunity for me to see a specific issue that I otherwise would have no exposure to.

Some issues are felt and experienced by all citizens – taxes, education, etc. Other topics are specific to a profession. It is that profession’s responsibility to educate the public on the issue and its ramifications. The profession needs to be the voice that guides change. The recent health care reform spawned several topics specific to the profession of pharmacy. These are issues that greatly affect pharmacists and interpreting the issue can only be accomplished by pharmacists. For this reason, pharmacists need to be vocal about the issues that directly affect our profession. Pharmacists have an expertise and we need to share our opinions. If we remain silent, then someone else who is not immersed in the profession will make decisions for us. Attending the congressional open houses reiterated this point.

-Chris