AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – A spokesman says former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is in critical condition after undergoing an emergency heart procedure at a hospital in Austin, Texas.

Ridge spokesman Steve Aaron says the 72-year-old Ridge, Pennsylvania’s Republican governor from 1995 to 2001, was attending the Republican Governors Association conference when he called for help at his hotel about 7 a.m.

The spokesman says Ridge underwent a cardiac catheterization at Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas.

Aaron says Ridge has been responsive with physicians.

He was the first homeland security secretary, serving under President George W. Bush until 2005.

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