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Eddie Lucio Jr. Politician

Eduardo Andres “Eddie” Lucio, Jr. (born 20 January 1946) is a Democratic member of the Texas Senate, having represented the 27th District since 1991.Lucio is the most pro-life Democratic senator in Texas. He was the only Democrat in the Texas Senate to support passage of the 2013 legislation to restrict abortions to twenty weeks of gestation and to require abortions be performed in surgical centers. Lucio has authored legislation to require that women receiving abortions and physicians performing them take a free resource awareness session.Lucio is the father of Eddie Lucio, III, who serves in the Texas House of Representatives.In the Texas Senate, Lucio is a member of the powerful Senate Finance Committee and served as Chairman of the International Relations and Trade Committee. He also sits on the Committees on Business and Commerce, State Affairs and serves as Vice Chairman of Senate Education Committee.During the 80th Legislative Session, Senator Lucio made tremendous inroads in the field of health care and education. Not only is he known as the father of the Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC), he successfully worked for passage of a bill during the 81st legislative session that creates the University of Texas Health Science Center - South Texas to serve Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, Willacy, Brooks, Jim Hogg, Kenedy, Kleberg, and Zapata counties with a full-fledged medical school. Lucio has worked to establish the partnership between the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College which allows UTB to become a four-year university and have access to the Permanent University Fund. Additionally, he authored the bill to create South Texas Community College.During the 78th legislative session, Senator Lucio was elected by his colleagues as Senate President Pro Tempore. On April 26, 2003, he became part of a prestigious Texas tradition when the President Pro Tempore is sworn in as "Governor for a Day" while the governor and lieutenant governor are out of state.