Plenary Session Transcripts

• Agriculture (AG) – outlook for farm and rural development in the 100th Congress
• Criminal Justice and Public Protection (CJ) – drug abuse prevention and the Administration’s substance abuse initiative; and immigration reform
• Economic Development and Technological Innovation (ED) – a federal-state partnership for competitiveness—the National Science Foundation
• Energy and Environment (EE) – electricity transmission issues; and discussion with EPA Administrator
• Executive Committee (Exec) – review of Administration priorities; welfare reform policy; and congressional action on the federal budget
• Human Resources (HR) – state initiatives in early childhood
• International Trade and Foreign Relations (ITFR) – Governors in Global Competition: New Reality of Trade
• Tourism Subcommittee – the role of the Governor’s trade mission in promoting tourism
• Transportation, Commerce, and Communications (TCC) – transportation safety issues; surface transportation reauthorization legislation; congressional action on airport legislation; report of the Working Group on State Motor Carrier Procedures; and telecommunications
• Other Governors’ Sessions – roundtable welfare prevention discussion on "Making America work: Productive People, Productive Policies;" Subcommittee on Tourism; special work session on "Making America Work: Bringing Down the Barriers;" Governors-only work session on the Governors’ role in congressional relations and gubernatorial-legislative relations regarding implementation of federal tax reform; special work session on "Making America Work: Jobs, Growth, and Competitiveness;" and U.S.-Canadian Task Force
• Plenary Session Discussion Subject - Pending issues in Congress, including highway legislation, welfare reform, and assistance to the homeless

Jim Wright, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, talked about a variety of legislative issues, including:

• his support for welfare reform;
• his view that while the nation’s educational system could not be improved simply by throwing money at it, neither could improvement occur without sufficient financial support;
• the need for legislation to benefit the homeless; and
• the struggle that Congress was facing with respect to meeting the budget deficit mandates of Gramm-Rudman-Hollings. [See 1986 Winter Meeting points of interest for information on the provisions of Gramm-Rudman-Hollings.]

Governor Thomas Kean of New Jersey asked the Speaker whether Congress might—in place of restrictive federal requirements—give the states statutory authority to implement program changes in areas such as welfare and education to meet their own unique needs. Wright responded that he would encourage consideration of this recommendation among his colleagues on Capitol Hill.

In contrast, Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin, who was the only Governor to oppose the proposal, said: "Wisconsin has always been a leader. We are currently the fourth highest as far as AFDC [Aid to Families with Dependent Children] payments…We made a commitment to welfare reform…to the poor…to the disadvantaged and the minorities. Every time Wisconsin does those types of innovation ideas, we seem to somehow get penalized because we are waiting for the federal dollar. I want the flexibility. I do not want to have to wait for Congress to act…I think it’s great, on a bipartisan basis, to pass a resolution on welfare reform, but I do not think it’s fair to penalize states that are way out in front…without the federal dollars…I would hope that you would…look at Wisconsin’s model as far as welfare reform and adopt some of the provisions, such as allowing for [free tuition] for mothers…going through high school and grade school if they do not have further children, allowing minorities to go on to college, allowing for subsidized day care centers for young mothers…[i]nnovative programs that really get at the heart of welfare dependency in this country."

Jim Wright, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said: "…I welcome…your enthusiastic recommendation of a welfare program that will work, break the chains of habit by which people have been tied and enslaved to the idea of nonproductive welfare status; teach those young people they’ve got a chance and that they do count, and that they have got something worth pursuing in the marketplace…and teach them pride in themselves. I think I can promise you that we welcome with open arms your recommendations on welfare reform. We look to you for advice, guidance. Light a candle for us…Counsel with our committees. We will give it a high priority."

Speaker Wright also said: "Some people…have the wrong impression about us Texans. I daresay you might find in this group some folks who have that very distinctly erroneous notion that all Texans are rich, swaggering, uncouth braggarts. I see my friend Jim Blanchard [Governor of Michigan] nodding his head in affirmation…In fact, some people had the wrong idea that Texans resented it those few years back when Alaska became the biggest of the states. That’s not so at all. We rejoice with our neighbors from Alaska in their new-found honor. We just hope you folks can bear that with the same becoming modesty that we always had when we were the biggest state."

Selected Policy Positions Adopted:
(1) Urging state departments of education to develop AIDS instruction programs; (2) recommending that Governors consider the importance of international education to the economic future of their states; (3) urging states to participate in the celebration of the bicentennial of the Constitution; (4) seeking revision of welfare reform policy to include: a national minimum benefit level funded by the federal government for single parents, intact families, married couples without children, and single adults; cost-of-living variations for families with children; and a welfare-to-work component whose resulting savings would be used to support the federal minimum benefit; (5) seeking permission for states to set speed limits up to 65 miles per hour; (6) seeking an expansion of the states’ role in rural development through the designation of a cabinet official for state rural areas ad directing the cooperative extension service to identify state and federal funds to support rural development; (7) calling for the creation of a new rural transition business loan program to help farmers and others in distressed rural areas begin or expand small businesses; (8) recommending that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency immediately establish a nationally comprehensive ozone control strategy that would build on existing state and federal actions; (9) endorsing a significant increase in efforts to assess the risks to health posed by toxic contaminants in the environment; (10) endorsing a block grant approach for funding adjustment programs for dislocated workers; and (11) reiterating support for the Older Americans Act and opposing any federal budget cuts or statutory changes that would reduce resources of services under the Act.