Dear Members,

We have great news! Our perseverance has paid off. Our licensure in California is safe! The budget that finally passed on Friday came with a pleasant twist for us. Although we had been told to expect a longer bill process, the Governor insisted on bringing the Department of Consumer Affairs restructuring back into the budget. Fortunately, because of our hard work over the last few months, the best and easiest option for him was to adopt the recommendations that arose out of the Senate Business and Professions committee hearings in June. There we fought tooth and nail to save Naturopathic Medicine in California in a struggle that led to the changes we will now see.

The Bureau of Naturopathic Medicine will be eliminated, BUT all of the bureau’s functions will be shifted under the Osteopathic Board (OMBC).

It essentially places the bureau as an independent committee under the aegis of the Osteopathic Board. The Committee will consist of 9 members in a structure identical to that of the present Advisory Council to the Bureau. In addition, the committee will get its own executive officer, meaning that we will not have to rely on the OMBC for day-to-day functioning. Also, the bill calls for two Naturopathic Doctors to be added to the 7-person Board of the OMBC. Boards are typically more stable than bureaus and the Osteopathic Board comes with the additional benefit that it was created by proposition and thus can only be eliminated by another proposition.

As you may recall, another concern during this process was that our act was due to sunset in July of next year. An additional provision was included in this bill that effectively extends our sunset until 2013.

Many people have spent a lot of time and energy making this happen - our Board and committees, our tireless lobbyists, and many of you, from our first executive director Dr. Sally LaMont to recent graduates like Dr. David Richard in Claremont. We thank you all. And we also thank those who gave generous donations to help fund this endeavor. This really was a joint effort. We threw our net wide to make sure that we talked to absolutely everybody who might be able to help us and, in the end, we needed everyone.

Governor Schwarzenegger has yet to sign the budget. He has said that he will do so and this should happen in the next day or two. It has been delayed because two of the budget bills did not pass the Assembly and the Governor has to find another billion dollars in cuts before he signs. We do not anticipate any line item changes to our bill.

The next few months will be critical in forging healthy links with the State’s Osteopathic Association and the Osteopathic Board and working out all the details of the move. Of course, we still intend to plan for future legislative efforts and continue to provide the same excellent level of support for all of our members. Help us! Get more involved. Offer your services to the CNDA. Get your patients involved. Go and meet with your local representatives and let them know who you are and what Naturopathic Medicine is. The more education we can do, the better positioned we will be to move the profession forward – and the less likely it is that anything like this will ever happen again.

Arlan Cage, ND, LAc. President

Simon Barker, ND, Vice President

Katherine Martinez Kleine, Executive Director