Plenary Session Transcripts

Governors Attending:

Guests:

Discussion Subjects:

• Economic Development and Commerce (EDC) – fast-track trade negotiation authority for the President; what industry needs from the U.S. transportation system; and telecommunications taxation: how rapid changes in the industry may affect state revenue systems
• Human Resources (HR) – strategies for preventing youth crime: early stages of child development
• Natural Resources (NR) – electricity restructuring: challenges and opportunities for Governors; and environmental protection: innovative state approaches to being green and business-friendly
• Plenary Session Discussion Subjects - Administration priorities; childhood development; and crime victims

Points of Interest:

Governor Thompson of Wisconsin announced that pursuant to the 1996 Education Summit, meetings were being held around the country at the state and local levels. In addition, a new organization had been established—called "Achieve"—one of whose objectives would be to establish a national clearinghouse of information on state educational standards and assessments. Already, $4 million had been raised from the business community to fund the organization, whose board of directors was made up of six Governors and six business leaders.

White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles told Governors that four years earlier, our nation had been looking at a complete breakdown of fiscal discipline, with one of the highest deficit to GDP ratios of any nation in the industrialized world. But President Clinton had brought the deficits down from $290 billion to $107 billion, making our deficit to GDP ratio one of the lowest of any G7 nation. [G7 industrialized nations included Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.]

Actor and film director Rob Reiner told Governors of the TV show that he was preparing on early childhood development to be aired in the spring, hosted by Tom Hanks. Reiner then introduced two child development experts to the Governors: neurobiologist Bruce Perry, and psychiatrist David Hamburg of the Carnegie Foundation. Perry said that the ability of the human brain to absorb new information and organize itself was 10,000 times more powerful in an infant than in a 50-year-old, and 1,000 times more powerful in an infant than in a 15-year-old. In short, the foundational organization of the human brain was in place by age three, making it critical that infants and toddlers receive priority attention.

Hamburg told Governors that his organization had for the past 15 years been examining growing up in America under the radically transformed circumstances of contemporary life, including huge changes in family and community. Infants in particular, he said, needed dependable caregivers to promote secure attachment. The Carnegie Foundation's program "Starting Points" sought to address the needs of young children from four perspectives: (1) parenthood education; (2) health care—prenatal, perinatal, and primary; (3) child care; and (4) community mobilization. He said that Governors could help with these focuses in a number of ways, including pooling information on successful early childhood development programs in the states.

John Walsh, the father of a murdered child and host of the television show "America's Most Wanted," asked for the Governors' support of a constitutional amendment—which he said President Clinton had endorsed—to protect victims' rights in federal cases. He noted that 29 states had amended their own constitutions to protect victims' rights, and he argued that it was time for the same to be done at the federal level. The amendment would be designed to: require that victims and their families be notified of trial dates and procedures pertinent to their cases and of parole and release dates of those by whom they had been victimized; provide for restitution and ensure that convicted criminals not be permitted to profit from their crimes; and permit victims and families to provide statements during trial of the impact of the crime on them.

Memorable Quotes:

Vice President Al Gore said: "Authority in many areas is moving away from our nation's capital to your state capitals…Voters who have called for more responsibilities to be shifted to the states did not do that because they wanted to sharpen the battle lines between the federal government and state governments. They want us, justifiably, to get along and complement one another's efforts…I believe very strongly that one way we in the federal government can complement your efforts is sometimes to just get out of the way. And that's one of the most important aspects of what people call devolution."

John Walsh, father of a murdered child and host of "America's Most Wanted" television show, said this about his effort to secure a constitutional amendment protecting victims' rights: "The United States Constitution has been amended 27 times in the history of this country, four times for criminals' rights. Never have victims been mentioned in the Constitution or in those 27 amendments…Our polls show that 90 percent of the American public is sick of the treatment of victims, sick of the level of violence in this country, and want to see victims at least get the same rights in the courtroom as the criminals get."

Selected Policy Positions Adopted:
(1) Urging Congress to enact legislation providing a mechanism for political self-determination by U.S. citizens residing in Puerto Rico; (2) urging Congress to adopt legislation requiring congressional committees and executive agencies to consider Tenth Amendment issues when drafting legislation and its implementing regulations; (3) expressing the views that amendments to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act should clarify which gambling activities and devices were to be subject to compact negotiation and that Governors should not be forced to negotiate with tribes for gambling activities and devices not otherwise permitted by state law; (4) calling for a permanent research and development tax credit, and for continuation of the Community Development Block Grant program and the federal empowerment zone program; (5) calling for an increase in the volume caps for so-called "private activity" tax-exempt bonds; (6) supporting a campaign to inform the public about maximizing the lifesaving capabilities of air bags while minimizing the risks; (7) authorizing qualified states to be delegated full or partial management of the Superfund program; (8) urging Congress and the Administration to work with Governors to help ensure fair treatment of elderly and disabled legal immigrants whose inability to naturalize might prohibit their access to welfare benefits; and (9) supporting a constitutional amendment to protect the rights of crime victims.

Presidential Addresses: