May 29, 2003
State Budget Shortfalls Key Issue for State Legislators' Annual Meeting
National Conference of State Legislatures' Annual Meeting July 21-25 in San Francisco focuses on ways of 'Connecting America'
DENVER -- With every state legislative issue being shaped by billions of dollars in budget shortfalls, policymakers are looking for innovative solutions in an era of growing public demands, rising federal mandate costs and declining revenues. Against this backdrop, the National Conference of State Legislatures will convene the nation's state legislators this summer to discuss policy options available to the states.
NCSL will hold its 29th -- and perhaps most important -- Annual Meeting July 21-25 in San Francisco, to discuss budget reductions, Medicaid challenges, security issues, the 'No Child Left Behind Act,' criminal sentencing, child care, environment and transportation issues. More than 1,200 state legislators are expected to meet and learn more about how states are coping with the budget shortfalls.
"America's legislatures are facing the most critical challenges they have confronted in decades," said NCSL Executive Director William Pound. "NCSL's 2003 Annual Meeting is designed to help state legislators go beyond traditional boundaries to explore the next steps in solving America's concerns."
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been invited to be a keynote speaker at the meeting, which annually draws the nation's foremost policy issue specialists. Confirmed speakers for the meeting include Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Uwe Reinhardt, one of the nation's leading experts on health care reform.
Delegates to the meeting also will be able to choose from more than 150 sessions on other key policy topics, including pharmaceutical costs, medical malpractice, stem cell research, terrorism preparedness, energy supplies, water rights, ethics, welfare reform, election reform, demographic trends, spam, do-not-call lists and e-government.
State legislators also will be voting on important policy issues that will guide NCSL's lobbying activity on Capitol Hill and within the Administration.
Key sessions slated for what has been billed as the "nation's most substantive public policy meeting" include:
Budgets & Finance
- State Economic Outlook: When Can States Expect Relief?
- Streamlining Sales Taxes
- Predatory Lending
- Taxing Simply, Taxing Fairly
Health
- Medicaid Challenges
- Challenges and Solutions in Pharmaceutical Spending
- Medical Malpractice
- Can Good Health Care Be Cost-Effective?
- Stem Cells and State Legislature
Education
- Implementing 'No Child Left Behind'
- New Funding Strategies for Higher Education
Homeland Security
- Terrorism Preparedness
- Identity, Security and Driver's Licenses
Environment
- Reducing Dependence on Foreign Energy Supplies
- Climate Change: Beyond Kyoto
- Whose Water Is It Anyway?0
Human Services and Welfare
- Fighting for State Flexibility: Round Two of Welfare Reauthorization
- Child Care: Hard Choices, No Easy Answers
- Working with Faith-Based Organizations to Serve Youth
- The Art of Learning to Work
Other Sessions
- Overhauling Elections--Implementing the Help America Vote Act
- Demographic Trends That Shape Policy
- Do Not Call or Send! The Future of E-mail and Telephone Marketing
- TEA-21 Reauthorization: Transportation Infrastructure at a Crossroads
More information about the Annual Meeting is available at the NCSL Web site: http://www.ncsl.org/am03/.
Journalists wanting to attend the meeting can find out more information at the NCSL Web site: http://www.ncsl.org/programs/press/2003/am03.htm. The site includes a link to a registration form. Journalists may attend the meeting at no charge. For more information, contact Gene Rose by phone at 303-856-1518 or via e-mail, gene.rose@ncsl.org, or contact Bill Wyatt at 202-624-8667 or william.wyatt@ncsl.org.
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Gene Rose
Public Affairs Director
303-856-1518
Bill Wyatt
Public Affairs Manager
202-624-8667
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