Plenary Session Transcripts

Governors Attending:

Guests:

Discussion Subjects:

• Economic Development and Commerce (EDC) - U.S. innovation partnership; technology demonstrations; challenges to innovation; Transportation Task Force report; and promoting telecommunications competition
• Human Resources (HR) - roundtable discussion of programs and practices to help school-aged children succeed
• Natural Resources (NR) - the enterprise for the environment: reinventing the environmental protection system
  Other Governors' Sessions - work session for Governors and their spouses; and Governors and Corporate Fellows roundtable discussions
• 1996-97 Chair Nevada Gov. Bob Miller's Initiative - Early Childhood Development
• Plenary Session Discussion Subjects - Presentations by President Bill Clinton and former Governor Lamar Alexander of Tennessee; early childhood development; and effective use of computer technology

Points of Interest:

President Bill Clinton reported to the Governors on the federal welfare reform legislation that had recently been enacted, containing time-limited benefits, work requirements, and tough measures to help states track deadbeat parents across state lines. The President told Governors that 3 million fewer people were receiving welfare than when he took office, 1.2 million of whom had left the rolls since the enactment of reform. However, those who remained on welfare were the hardest to place in jobs, so the federal government was providing $3 billion to help communities create work opportunities for those who could not be absorbed by the private sector alone. A private employer's tax credit also served as an incentive to hire long-term welfare recipients. In addition, $4 billion had been provided for child care assistance. And because many job opportunities were in places inaccessible to those who could not afford automobiles, the President was seeking an additional $600 million in transportation funds to help states and localities devise strategies for helping people to reach jobs.

Governors Tommy Thompson (R-WI) and Tom Carper (D-DE) mentioned the Welfare-to-Work Partnership, which had been developed by an advisory committee that they co-chaired, jointly with the White House and the private sector, for the purpose of helping place welfare recipients in private sector jobs.

A panel of experts discussed effective strategies for achieving positive results in early childhood development. Doug Price, Chairman of the Colorado Business Commission on Child Care Financing, noted that 60 percent of mothers with young children were now in the workforce, compared with 14 percent in 1950; 40 percent of children were in homes without fathers; and a business community study had concluded that 20 percent of children lived in settings deemed to be negative or unsafe.

Citing the preliminary results of a Rand study, Lynn Karoly of the Rand Corporation said that that early childhood (up to age 3) intervention programs resulted in gains in emotional and/or cognitive development and educational attainment, better health, reductions in the requirement for special education, and great labor force participation on the part of parents. One program that had followed children for 28 years found that savings to the government exceeded costs by a factor of about two to one, mostly from gains in children's outcomes once they reached adulthood.

Actor and director Rob Reiner presented the results of a nationwide survey sponsored by six national children's organizations and conducted by the Lake Research Group and the Terrance Group, which had revealed the following views of voters:

• 85 percent felt that children's issues were important in making their voting decisions.
• 48 percent named children's issues as their number one priority.
• 64 percent said that the government had a role to play in childhood development.
• 62 percent said they would oppose a balanced budget if it meant cutting children's programs.
• 65 percent indicated that they would favor proposals for families and children even if it meant slowing down deficit reduction.
• 76 percent said that they were more likely to vote for a candidate who supported increased spending for children's programs.

Governors talked about several specific private and public-private initiatives that had been successful in protecting and improving the health of children and families. One was “For America's Babies,” through which Hallmark Cards sent cards to new mothers to remind them when their children's immunizations were due. And Pfizer Pharmaceuticals had undertaken the “Sharing the Care” initiative under which the company provided medicines at no cost to uninsured patients with incomes below the poverty level. Thus far, 600,000 Americans had received more than $89 million worth of medicine through the Pfizer program.

Former Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander offered recommendations to Governors on how to improve school performance, and Governors discussed such issues as whether and how to reward teachers and schools for their successes.

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, talked to Governors about how technology could be used to improve not only America's educational system but also efficiency in government operations and services. Gates said that computer technology would ultimately be used to replace government paperwork with electronic forms and to make government services more accessible to the public. He also noted that states were in the primary position to determine telecommunications rates and what incentives would be offered for building out high speed networks. And he suggested that the decisions states made in this regard would be taken into consideration by businesses deciding where to settle.

Memorable Quotes:

President Bill Clinton said: "This country is changing in dramatic ways. Race, ethnicity and religion...[are] convulsing the rest of the world. If we can somehow not only respect, but actually celebrate, our diversity, and still have people say, 'but the most important thing is I'm an American and we have one America, this is an unbelievable opportunity for us in a new century.'"

With respect to education, Lamar Alexander—former Tennessee Governor and Education Secretary under President George H.W. Bush—said: "...the agenda is this: Number one, rigorous standards, set locally not by Washington...The Department of Education is basically creating a new test from scratch. And that makes a difference. It makes a difference who the Secretary of Education is. Whether it's Dick Riley, whether it's Lamar Alexander or whether it's Phyllis Schlafly or whether it's Marion Barry. You don't know what might be in the tests. And I think those of us who are Governors [or] who have been Governors...know that math is not necessarily math and English is not necessarily English when Washington gets in the business of defining it."

Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft Corporation, said the following about the use of computer technology by government: "...thinking about government, what can be done here for efficiency? Certainly filing taxes and insurance forms, applying for permits, applying for business licenses, all of these things can be done very easily. I think back to when I was very young...actually the only job I ever had besides Microsoft was being a page both for the state government and for the federal government, and what I used to do was just carry messages around from one place to another. And I think those jobs may have to change in the future...[b]ecause a lot of that can be done electronically."

Selected Policy Positions Adopted:
(1) Making recommendations regarding the structure of a program to provide health insurance to currently uninsured children; (2) calling on the U.S. Postal Service to consider the impact on local communities of proposed closures or relocations of postal facilities, and to provide for public input and a means for appeal with regard to those proposed closures or relocations; (3) emphasizing the need for flexibility in implementing requirements for transportation conformity with the Clean Air Act; (4) emphasizing the need for states to be protected from unanticipated costs and liabilities associated with base closures, disposals, and reuse; (5) calling for user fees and private sector funding where appropriate and practicable for the purpose of maintaining public recreation lands and facilities; (6) opposing any federal mandate to implement competition with respect to retail electricity sales and services under state jurisdiction; (7) supporting the National Guard Youth Challenge Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense to help at-risk youth acquire essential life and job skills as well as a General Educational Development diploma; (8) recognizing the explosion of gang membership and calling for greater intergovernmental coordination and information-sharing between states and the federal government; and (9) identifying key principles, measures, and guidelines on which to base distribution of the federal government's commitment of $1 billion over five years in the form of bonuses to states demonstrating high performance with respect to welfare reform.

Presidential Addresses: