Plenary Session Transcripts

Governors Attending:

Guests:

Discussion Subjects:

• Agriculture and Rural Development (AG) - what works with respect to rural economic development; and the Farm Bill from a budget perspective
• Economic Development and Technological Innovation (ED) - release of the "Excellence at Work" report; improving the competitiveness of our workforce and businesses; Governors' roundtable discussion on economic conversion and base closings; and release of the report on increasing the supply of women and minority engineers
• Energy and Environment (EE) - environmental priorities of the 1990s; and environmental challenges in Eastern Europe: opportunities for state assistance
• Executive Committee (Exec) - a view from the White House; and education reform and the Business Roundtable
• Human Resources (HR) - setting the stage for health reform; release of the report of the Subcommittee on Health; and an update on the "Excellence at Work" initiative
• International Trade and Foreign Relations (ITFR) - opportunities for states in the new Europe; trade missions to Eastern Europe; and the Peace Corps's international education initiatives
• Justice and Public Safety (JPS) - prison crowding; and a review of the military force structure and its impact on National Guard units
• Transportation, Commerce, and Communications (TCC) - transportation and telecommunications: investment priorities for future prosperity; and Surface Transportation reauthorization
• Other Governors' Session - Task Force on Education
• 1989-90 Chair Iowa Gov. Terry E. Branstad's Initiative - Consensus for Change: Achieving Educational and Environmental Excellence
• Plenary Session Discussion Subjects - Waste management; global climate change; and education

Points of Interest:

Reports were presented and discussed with respect to two NGA task force studies of the environment: one on waste management and the other on global climate change. Governors were informed that the U.S. produced more waste than any other industrial society and recycled only 13 percent of our waste stream. One issue of particular concern was disposal of waste across state lines. Among the recommendations of the waste management task force were that: (1) waste production per person be reduced to 1985 levels; (2) waste stream recycling be increased from 13 percent to 40 percent by 2000 with an ultimate target of 50 percent; (3) government, industry and citizens groups cooperate to develop voluntary recycling content standards; and (4) the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) be asked to give Governors the authority to impose surcharges for waste transported between states. With respect to the last recommendation, Bill Ruckelshaus, former EPA administrator, said that courts currently viewed the Interstate Commerce Act as prohibiting states from imposing higher standards on waste imported from neighboring states than on intrastate waste.

A key finding of the task force on global climate change was that because of their jurisdiction over utilities, energy conservation, land use, transportation, public health, and the environment, Governors had a larger stake in—and responsibility for—global climate change than might be assumed. Even if the worst fears of scientists with respect to climate change proved to be unfounded, early mitigation action such as reforestation and energy conservation were valuable for their own sake. (Task force recommendations were incorporated in policy positions described below.)

Governors delved into other international environmental issues as well. Ruckelshaus spoke of his service on the World Commission on Environment and Development, which had been created by a United Nations Charter to investigate problems of pollution, overpopulation, resource depletion, energy, and food supply worldwide for the coming 30 years. The Commission had concluded that environmental protection and economic development were not necessarily in conflict. To the contrary, sustainable development was determined to be an answer to environmental problems. Key to pollution abatement, however, was to focus on prevention rather than treatment, as the U.S. had tended to do.

Barber Conable of the World Bank pointed out that while the bank was primarily a development institution, it recognized that a healthy economy could not exist within a sick biosphere. And environmental degradation most heavily affected the poor, who lacked the capacity of self-protection. Consequently, the bank had identified five global environmental problems that required attention, including destruction of natural habitats, soil degradation, hunger, water depletion and pollution, urban industrial and agricultural pollution, and degradation of global commons such as the atmosphere and the oceans. Strapped economically, developing nations tended not to want to borrow money and thereby enlarge their debt to invest in environmental solutions that would not see an immediate payoff. To deal with this issue, the bank was establishing a global environmental fund to which developed countries would be encouraged to contribute.

Conable also emphasized that because pollution was being generated primarily in the industrialized world, it behooved nations like the U.S. to take the lead in achieving solutions to international environmental problems as it sought partnerships with the developing world.

A discussion on education began with mention that NGA was releasing the report "Educating America: State Strategies for Achieving the Goals," which was a plan of action on steps states could take to achieve the goals established at the national Education Summit held in Charlottesville, Virginia in September 1989.

A panel of experts then commented on how best to achieve the newly-established goals. Lamar Alexander, former Governor of Tennessee and now President of the University of Tennessee, argued that the challenge was to repair a system while it was still in operation. He expressed the view that not only did education have to be attacked from the lowest levels up, but also from the top down—meaning higher education. Bill Brock, former Secretary of Labor and U.S. Representative and Senator from Tennessee, referred to the work of the National Commission on the Skills of the American Work Force, which had found that six of the United States' greatest competitors had done a substantially better job than the U.S. of educating not just their children but their workers. Two reasons for this phenomenon were that the U.S. had chosen low wages rather than high skills as a means of competing, and had not prepared non-college bound workers for trades, as had other nations.

Al Shanker, President of the American Federation of Teachers, expressed concern that the American public did not realize the seriousness of the educational crisis in our nation, in part because measurements of student achievement were too vague to impress upon parents how well or poorly their children were doing.

Keith Geiger of the National Education Association commended Governors for taking the position that teachers should be granted the latitude, authority, and autonomy to exercise their professional judgment on behalf of their students. And he highlighted NGA's finding that there was a limit to what schools could accomplish in a larger social matrix filled with ills such as hunger, poverty, inadequate health care, and a drug culture.

Partisanship was exposed during discussion of a proposed policy position regarding the Savings and Loan Crisis. Specifically, Republicans opposed establishing an independent commission to investigate the crisis, which one Governor commented would simply produce information that was already well known. [NOTE: Savings and Loans were deregulated during the 1980s, allowing them to borrow and lend money. In short, many loaned more money than was prudent, but their actions went undetected because S&L regulators were not trained to detect them in the newly-deregulated environment in which S&Ls now operated. As a result, a large number of S&Ls went belly up, and insured customers had to be paid out of government guarantees just as similarly-situated commercial bank customers would be compensated.]

Memorable Quotes:

William Ruckelshaus, former EPA Administrator, said: "...toward the end of the last century...[w]e decided...that in the pursuit of our economic goals worldwide it was no longer permissible to exploit the worker. It took us about fifty years to translate that attitudinal change on the part of the public into rules, laws, norms, [and] customs that embodied that attitudinal revolution. Sweat shop laws, child labor laws, the right to organize, all of those kinds of things took place over the course of about fifty years. There was a similar sea change in public attitude in this country in the 1960s. Simply stated, it was that in the pursuit of our economic goals the public decided it was no longer permissible to exploit nature."

Lamar Alexander, President of the University of Tennessee and former Governor of Tennessee, said the following about education reform: "The problem for me is, I don't see how you can repair the airplane while the airplane is still flying. And somehow we have to figure out a way to have a brand new American school...which will take a long time to develop, and at the same time continue to educate those who are in...school. I believe the prize will go to [whomever] figures that out."

Then-Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas said during discussion of the ongoing partisan finger-pointing with regard to the Savings and Loan Crisis: "...I think we are in a position when...everybody is into massive denial. You know, I have spent a lot of time thinking about that because of the drug and alcohol problems in my own family. But I have to tell you, I think any adult learns sooner or later that if you have a problem the worst thing you can do is to continue to deny responsibility for it."

Selected Policy Positions Adopted:
(1) Requesting that the executive branch of the U.S. government act to develop initiatives to coordinate with states in rural economic development activities if the legislative branch failed to do so; (2) urging that the U.S. join in the international agreement to protect the earth's atmosphere, that U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide be stabilized, that production and recycling of CFCs [chlorofluorocarbons] be stopped, that alternative energy systems be developed and commercialized, that forestry programs be promoted, that planning efforts begin for adapting to a changing climate, and that more aggressive research be conducted to determine what more states could do to control global climate change; (3) asking Congress to reauthorize the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, which was due to expire; (4) calling for reauthorization of the community services block grant; (5) urging support by the U.S. for an open lands policy with respect to the Soviet Union, removing travel restrictions; (6 seeking an analysis of the capacity of the National Guard to provide military coverage during peacetime in the light of proposed cuts in military forces associated with changes in Eastern Europe; (7) and asking that an independent commission be convened to examine the root causes and impacts of the savings and loan crisis and recommend means of preventing a repeat of the disaster.