March 26, 2000

 

Editor

El Paso Times

P.O.Box 20

El Paso, Texas 79999

 

Dear Editor:

 

This letter is in response to the article by Mr. Jim Conley, “El Paso gains support for health panel”, reported on Wednesday, March 15, 2000.  The reference is to the location of the national office for the U.S. – Section of the United States – Mexico Border Health Commission.  As the Times reported in January, there are three appointed Commissioners from the area: Dr. Larry Nickey, of El Paso and Dr. Catherine Torres and Dr. Jeff Brandon, of Las Cruces. 

 

Informal discussions are continuing weekly as part of the Commission’s start-up activities, to include discussions about the location of the U.S. – Section national office.  Staff from the offices of U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and K. Bailey Hutchinson continue to be involved in these start-up activities.  You will recall from the record that Senator Jeff Bingaman was the chief sponsor of the legislation (P.L. 103-400 passed in 1994) authorizing the Commission.

 

The Commissioners will probably consider many factors on the question of the location of the national office, only one of which may be geographical location at the border.  The first question may well be whether this office is to be located at the border.  Assuming the Commission crosses this first hurdle, as we would hope, there are a number of options outside of El Paso and San Diego, including Southern Doña Ana County, that could be very favorable for the location of the national office.         

 

New Mexico State University in partnership with the New Mexico Border Health Office has already provided space and support for the Border Health Commission’s New Mexico Outreach Office.  This new office was presented to the regional community on January 10^th with a reception and press conference where we were joined by Senator Bingaman.  The office is also co-located with the New Mexico Border Epidemiology & Environmental Health Center (BEC), an office unique in it’s own right.  The BEC was opened in 1998 with a mission to serve the three-state binational border region and to take the lead in the development of the Binational Border Health Information System.

 

One of the identified primary goals of the commission, as formulated by the words of Senator Bingaman, is to “institutionalize a domestic focus on border health, which can transcend political changes.”  It will be important for the Commissioners, as they keep this goal in mind, to deliberate objectively and forthrightly about all the critical issues before them, including the issue of the location of the national office.                      

 

Communities and organizations in New Mexico, or for that matter Arizona or South Texas, are no less deserving than El Paso or San Diego, to be considered as appropriate options to serve the purposes of the Commission.  As to New Mexico, our communities have shown their commitment to the improvement of border health by their continuing exceptional support for the projects of the Border Health Office.  They do this without not much fanfare, with limited in-kind resources and a lot less media coverage.  New Mexico State University and the Border Health Office, in cooperation for over eight years, have established the most unique border health-academic partnership on the U.S. – Mexico border.  The establishment of the Border Epidemiology Center is but one result of this partnership.  The opening of the Commission Outreach Office is another.  The State of New Mexico and the Department of Health, through the Border Health Office, continue to support some of the most successful local and binational public health projects found anywhere along the border.     

 

We in the New Mexico border region are reminded, on a daily basis no less, that we are media-dependent on El Paso to impact the regional and national markets.  With this clearly in mind, we can only seek to encourage a decision-making process for the Commission that is open and transparent, focused on the ends to be achieved and one that serves the needs of the border.  Our border neighborhood deserves no less.  There is too much work to be done.  It is time to go about doing that work. 

 

Sincerely,

 

/Submitted by E-mail & FAX/

Dan Reyna

Director

New Mexico Border Health Office

 

1170 N. Solano, Ste. ‘L’

Las Cruces, NM  88001

 

2649 Bearcat Drive

Las Cruces, NM  88001

(W) 505-528-5154

(H)  505-527-9018