News release Public Information Office   SLU 10880   Hammond, LA 70402   phone: 985-549-2341   fax: 985-549-2061 publicinfo@selu.edu Spring 2004 news releases Public Information home News archive Contact: Rene Abadie Date: 4/29/05   Click on image for publication quality photo  U.S. REP. BOBBY JINDAL TO ADDRESS SOUTHEASTERN GRADUATES        HAMMOND – U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) will deliver the keynote address at Southeastern Louisiana University’s spring commencement on Saturday, May 14.        Southeastern will confer associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees on nearly 1,050 students at the 10 a.m. ceremony in the University Center.        Jindal, a first-time Congressman representing Louisiana’s First District, was elected last November. Selected by his colleagues as Freshman Class President, he serves on three House of Representatives committees: Homeland Security, Resources, and Education and the Workforce.        In 1996 Jindal was appointed secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals where he revamped the Medicaid program, turning a $400 million deficit he inherited into a $220 million surplus. In 1998 he was appointed executive director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. He was responsible for the 17-member national panel’s day-to-day operations and the creation of its proposals. The commission’s recommendations were the driving force backing the Medicare Modernization Act that updated the program and was signed into law in 2003.        Jindal returned to Louisiana in 1999 when he was appointed president of the University of Louisiana System, the governing body for eight regional universities, including Southeastern. Later he was appointed a senior health policy advisor to President George W. Bush, serving as assistant secretary for planning and evaluation for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.        A native of Baton Rouge, he received his undergraduate degree with honors from Brown University in biology and public policy and graduate degree in politics from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.