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Meeting Summary
1991 NGA Annual Meeting
Seattle, Washington (August 18-20)
Guests:
Discussion Subjects:
- Agriculture and Rural Development, and Energy and Environment (AG/EE)
- Agriculture and the Environment - Common Ground?
- Economic Development and Technological Innovation (ED) - job creation
in the 1990s; economic recovery and rebounding of state revenues; and the
home assisted nursing care robot
- Executive Committee (Exec) - key legislative issues
- Human Resources (HR) - From Classrooms to Workrooms: Meeting the
Needs of the Changing American Family
- International Trade and Foreign Relations (ITFR) - North American
free trade
- Justice and Public Safety (JPS) - violence against children; the
role of prosecutors and courts in family violence protection; and the impact
of reduction in defense forces on the National Guard
- Transportation, Commerce, and Communications (TCC) - America's Transportation
Future: High Stakes for States; the Intermodal Surface Transportation Infrastructure
Act; the Surface Transportation Assistance Act; public-private partnerships
for economic vitality; and the National Commission Against Drunk Driving
- Other Governors' Sessions - Task Force on Health Care; and special
session on rural development
- 1990-91 Chair Washington Gov. Booth Gardner's Initiative - Rx for
a Healthy America
- Plenary Session Discussion Subjects - Health care; and progress report
on the National Education Goals
Points of Interest:
At their plenary session, Governors discussed a proposed policy position favoring the implementation of a national health care system by the year 2000 that would be affordable and available for all Americans, with sufficient controls in place to ensure cost-effective care. Although Governors agreed that immediate federal action was justified to give states the waivers needed to adapt the expenditure of federal health care dollars to individual state needs, there was partisan disagreement on an amendment offered by Democratic Governor Lawton Chiles of Florida, who sought to move up the projected date for the establishment of a national health care system from the year 2000 to 1994. Republican Governors opposed the amendment on the ground that the policy under consideration already specified that work should begin immediately to establish a national system, and that 1994 was too early to expect final results. Republican Governor Carroll Campbell of South Carolina then sought to amend Chiles with a proposal to seek a joint meeting with congressional leadership and the President to ask for relief from Medicaid mandates. However, both the Campbell and Chiles amendments were defeated, largely along party lines. Governor Bob Miller of Nevada then offered an amendment—which was adopted—to require that the health care system have sufficient controls in place to ensure cost-effective care delivery, and to state that NGA would meet with the President and Congress to begin work on the matter.
Memorable Quotes:
Governor Casey of Pennsylvania said the following in favor of a floor amendment to a proposed comprehensive health care policy that would move the target date for federal resolution of the matter from 2000 to 1994: "In October of 1987 I had open heart surgery. I was one of those fortunate Americans who had a good health care system...Open heart surgery costs $135,000 when you can get it. It saved my life. If someone had said to me...you need open heart surgery, but you don't have health insurance...[b]ut we are working on a plan and we are going to begin immediately and by the year 2000 we might have something to help you, I think I would have responded "Forget it. Save your money. The year 2000 is too late. I need help now." Selected Policy Positions Adopted:
(1) Recommending that states be given the authority to propose limited bans on importation of waste; (2) calling upon the U.S. government to pursue a range of bilateral issues with Canada and Mexico either as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or through other bilateral methods, and specifying that adequate time be provided for industries and farmers to adapt to trade adjustments with our contiguous neighbors, that environmental standards be enforced in cooperation with Mexico, and that effective worker training programs be available; and (3) encouraging states that still maintained preferences in government purchasing to eliminate those preferences, with the knowledge that open procurement practices would expand export opportunities seeking to sell to local governments of other nations and provide greater choice and lower purchase price for the goods that taxpayer dollars would eventually purchase.
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