Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal Tim Storey 20240713

CSPAN Washington Journal Tim Storey July 13, 2024

This is an organization, sort of an association of the 50 state legislatures as again legislatures. We were founded in 1970s. We provide an opportunity for legislators and legislative staff to share best practices about policies they are looking at, policies they turn into law as well as best practices. 7, 33 legislators in the states as well as puerto rico, guam, the district of columbia. About 25,000 legislative staff we count as members. We provide them with information and opportunities to get together and share ideas. The federal government both the congress and the administration to go after Public Policy problems and challenges together. That is what we are doing now. This has been an opportunity to work across the various lines of federalism. The american system has local government, State Government and the federal government. All with different roles, but much of their work crosses over. Partnered in an extraordinary way with the federal government as well as local governments. Do then opportunity to best that government can to do with the pandemic and the crisis. Host in this new world of trying to run a state amid a pandemic, what are a few best practices you find are being shared . Guest legislatures typically are in session during the first half of the year. There are 10 that are essentially in session during the entire year. It is important that states have good policies. The number one thing legislatures have to do in partnership with governments is enact budgets. Prisons andon, fund health care, roads, transportation. These are all critical things that the states are part are responsible for in terms of funding and setting broad policy. The legislatures this crisis hit at a interesting time. 18 or so states, legislators had legislatures had already adjourned. They had passed their 2021 budgets. Postponed,ates have or delayed their sessions. They have let the state capitals at suspended back sessions. Some of those, before doing so, were trying to pass emergency legislation to fund some of the activities, combat the terrible spread of the virus throughout the u. S. Funding toassing help Public Health systems and they had to do with, in many cases through extraordinary measures. Remote voting or meeting remotely, coming together in extraordinary ways. Hadstate of arkansas something i had never seen. I have been active with legislatures for over 30 years. Everything seems unprecedented right now. Analog in anys no of our collective histories. And in most cases, the history of the states. The state of arkansas, they convened their legislature in a basketball arena. They had each member of the Arkansas House sit multiple seats apart. Rostrum on the floor of the Basketball Court so that everybody could keep a safe social distance so that they could pass emergency legislation to keep that state on top of the virus. Held allowed remote voting for floor sessions. They can from outside the capital. These are complicated issues. States are doing this to respond to the crisis, but legislatures are committed to transparency. They have systems that are designed for public input, making sure that laws, policies that are passed the public is aware and able to have a voice in that process. The legislator horse are making tough decisions about complying with their own health and the health of people who work in and around legislatures with the need for transparency and constitutional openness. There is a clash there that has surfaced. Some states have enacted new rules to allow them to vote remotely, meet remotely. These are all temporary. Obviously once this crisis is over, hopefully when they come back into session, they will be able to meet in a regular way. Host we should viewers of this map from the new york times. Where in orange are staying home stayathome orders have been issued. Are wherer straps there are stayathome orders in parts of the state. States in white, there are not orders. Ordersyathome considered best practices at this point . Understand even three or four more states enacted stayathome orders. Those have typically been executive actions with governors execute exercising their executive powers. Governors have acted. Cases haves in many gone in and enacted a framework for these stayathome orders. They have the power of statute as well as the executive order of the governors. Over three fourths of americans are living in a state that has a stayathome order. Host according to the new york times, 261 Million People in 31 states, 18 cities, the district of columbia, puerto rico as well. Also, virginia, maryland and arizona. About theking response to coronavirus pandemic. Tim storey is our guest of the National Conference of state legislatures. If you want to join the conversation, the phone lines are split up. Eastern time zone, 202 7488000. Mountain or pacific, 202 7488001. First from sewall, new jersey. What is your question . Caller a couple of comments i want to make and i have a question. The question is, even in new york we have this state in order, yet when cuomo was asked about letting people fly out of state, he refused to do that. I am not understanding the purpose. Thing, when they were talking about the order of how this goes, i look at these governors standing there is asking theally federal government for help. And i am notng minimizing it, but all he is doing is saying how much equipment he needs, how many masks he needs. He is not doing anything without trump. When i hear people saying he looks president ial, my thing is the other day he was talking about spaghetti and meatballs. Tim storey on those questions there. First, in terms of the order the governor had and how d to travel, i will say every one of these orders is uniquely different. You cant look at the stayathomes many governors have issued no two are exactly alike. They are all customized for the situation in that state at that time. Our states are very different. A muchii, you have got different situation than new york. The outbreak is on a different trajectory in different states. In terms of the governors request, working with the federal government, it is a whole of government approach we have been on a number of calls with intergovernmental staff and the white house, i have to give them a lot of credit. They have been responsive to state and local governments. Office of Government Relations and that entire team there has been doing an extraordinary job making sure the governors, legislatures, city and county officials, sheriffs, altering kinds of state and local officials are uptodate on what is going on. One thing the federal government can do is provide resources. That is part of what happened with congress enacted the third piece of legislation to respond to the crisis last week. Billion ford 150 state and local governments. The majority of that is directly for Coronavirus Response. Of course, that bill had a lot , butimulus for the economy probably half of the 2 trillion bridges extraordinary hard to which is extraordinary. About half of it is directly to combat coronavirus. Roughly half of it is economic stimulus. That is where the states are working in partnership with the federal government. One thing the federal government can do that states cannot do is borrow money. The federal government, by providing these funds are in statesdoing that can only really bound to do project or they cant borrow money the same way the federal government can. States have to balance budgets, they cannot run deficits. It is a different issue, but where the states have been working with the federal government in terms of the amount of resources they can bring and frankly local governments is the frontline. They are trying to figure out do they have enough ambulances. Host focusing on those resources, i want to show viewers this graphic. It talks about the 150 billion for states for coronavirus relief. I want you to talk to the distribution process. Noting for viewers, the graphic is based on population. No state will receive a payment of less than one point 1. 25 billion. Can you talk about that more . Guest our states ok with that . That is an open question. We are moving in the dark. Become cliche it is Uncharted Waters in terms of what the economy is going to do. Let me talk about the distribution of the hundred 50 billion, that will go in out in a formula based on population. 8 billion of that goes to tribal governments. You take a billion out of 150, and then another goes to territories and the district of columbia. I think that leaves 139 billion. That gets distributed to states. States can a percent of that they can spend on coronavirus related expenses. They cant replace general fund money they were spending for roads, it has to be related to coronavirus. Coronavirus expenses are in almost any area. Education funding, health care so, the 55 the states use there. 1. 25 billion guarantee into regardless of population. I think there are 18 states getting the minimum amount. Wyoming, of course. Into the middle populations. California obviously getting the most. I am doing this from memory, i want to say it is around 18 billion for california. Governmentsto local over population of 500,000. 130hly 40 cities above, and of the 3300 counties meet that population threshold. By theill be transferred u. S. Department of treasury to state general funds in two or three weeks. Withtates will then work to get the money to them as fast as possible. Host focusing on Coronavirus Response in the states. If you have a question about that process, now would be a great time to call in. Tim storey with the National Conference of state legislators, he will be with us this morning. Bill from syracuse, new york. Concerned president that hede a remark would cooperate with those who would cooperate with him. He would not cooperate with states that were not with him. We have a democratic governor who is critical of the president. How much power does the president the executive have in giving out money and supplies . We are very low on medical supplies and that is an important thing to me. Guest thank you. That is a good question. I would say the legislation passed last week by congress and signed by the president is very clear about the amount of money and how it gets transferred to the states. Billion im sorry 150 billion in flexible spending money to the states. Roughly 31o billion to education programs. Billions of dollars for health care to shore up Hospital Systems to combat the virus around the country. The president ial politics will not play into that. That money will be distributed by the agencies, the departments. Ourwe have worked organization and other organizations like ours, the National Governors association, the association of counties, league of cities have been working very closely with officials within the departments that will be distributing this money. In terms of that funding for equipment, offsetting the extreme costs of running the Public Health system well past , that wont beed affected by any kind of politics. I want to talk about what you are seeing when it comes to this concern of states competing for resources. How jimbo from bakersfield, california puts it in his question. Getting ppe and ventilators to areas in need and to stop states from bidding against each other, should the states formed their own consortium to complete this task since the federal government is unwilling or unable to do that . I am nothn, i confess, qualified to answer that question. I am not familiar with how the ppe is literally being transferred. It is an interesting idea. Majority ofe vast officials both at the federal, state and local level are at. Are operating in good faith to make sure supplies are getting out as fast as they can to every corner of the United States. Way, let me put it this Governor Whitmer out of michigan put out an appeal on twitter asking for doctors around the country to come to michigan. Our state legislatures concerned , whetherpetition here it is medical professionals or equipment . Guest i have not heard that concern. I also heard Governor Cuomo make the same appeal yesterday or the day before. I think they are all in triage mode. They are so in the moment, as the crisis escalates so rapidly. I have not caught any sense of competing against other states. Lives are atoples stake and americans are dying. It is a situation with gravity unlike anything we have seen. Arernors, legislatures going to do what they can for the people, but i have not seen that kind of competition. I do not expect that. Of dunn, north carolina. Caller good morning per day have a quick question. Coronavirus started, we closed down restaurants here. I have recently got laid off. However, i was having a house built they stopped construction so ive been having to stay in a local motel. However, my funds have run out. It is going to be two or three weeks until an employment kicks between kicks in. In north carolina, the motels are not listed on nonaddiction. Not even action. Of 50 to 60 people here in the area that do not have funds to stay in motels. Another they have put the 5 00 curfew in effect, if youre caught out it is 500 1000. What are these people supposed to do . I am one of them. At 11 00 today i will be out on the curb. Host take you for sharing your story. A couple of issues kathy brings up there. Guest kathy, my heart goes out to you. You are like tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of americans who are being devastated by not just the virus and its health effects, and the people we know contracting the virus, but the Economic Impact of this, which is fear. We are in absolute Uncharted Waters. Sailing along, and to the wind stopped. The seap is floating on at the whims of the current. It is a heartbreaking story and i think it is one that is happening around the country. I do know that there are masses of federal money put into the stimulus bill as well as the Coronavirus Response sort of a combination including direct payments to american taxpayers. Taxes in either 2018 or 2019, even if she hasnt and she can request this. The irs does not have a process for people who have not filed in the past couple of years, but they are expected to have that soon. This direct payment should be deposited in Bank Accounts where the irs has the account numbers. Within the next week or so. That is going to happen fairly quickly. The unemployment extension was part of the second piece of legislation passed. On Employment Benefits will be extended from three to four months. There is help on the way, but what kathy describes is a personal situation that is very difficult and challenging. , im sureresources there are county resources and hopefully she can get a hold of some of the. Somebody. Host 20 minutes left with tim storey. States responsible for running their own elections. I wonder, what is considered best practices right now when it comes to us being in an Election Year amid this pandemic echo amid this pandemic . Guest that is a interesting question. There are still roughly 20 states who have not held their primaries. Many have delayed. June 2 has become a second super tuesday because i think seven states have pushed their primaries off to the early june june 2. Even that is in question. No public official wants to change election dates probably just because of they want to make sure there is consistency and transparency about when and how elections are held. This is Uncharted Waters once again in terms of how the United States again, the states run the election. A number of states are exploring more mailin voting. Essentially, most states either voting excuse absentee or excused absentee voting. If you combine the five states that do all election by a male, that was one state 10 years ago, we now have five. Including the state of colorado, where i am today. States,om those five the vast majority of other states are either no excuse absentee so you can request an absentee ballot from your election official, or you can do an excused absentee ballot and just saying that because of coronavirus you are requesting an absentee ballot. I think many of these are going ail in. T to all m, congress put 400 million into the cares act that passed to help states change how they run elections. In voting. Mail i think states will be exploring that in a widespread way. Mail inas been doing voting for 25 years or more. Some states have been able to do it effectively. One other observation, elections are more complicated than just showing up. One of the Biggest Challenges and states that have not had their primaries, to qualify for a primary ballot you typically have to get signatures. Lets say to run for state senate you have to get 1000 signatures. 500 signatures, depending on the state. The localbe out at supermarket collecting signatures are going to your friends and having campaign events. Are exploring reducing the number of signatures to put your name on the ballots for certain offices. Extending thering filing period so that people who want to run for office have an opportunity to do that. Another interesting effect is because you cant gather signatures, there are 24 states that allow what is called the citizen initiative. You cancollect propose a law. Collect signatures to put that on the ballot. I think you will see a sharp decline in ballot measures because proponents of these measures wont be able to get the signatures. The inability of people to get people together. Onre are a number of effects elections that are playing out in real time and we dont know exactly how it is going to wind up. Host a little bit of time, a lot of collars. Patrick in naples, florida. Caller thanks for taking my call. Question and a comment. State legislators in the have any they could vote to override Governor Desantis . He didnt do anything with the spring breakers, now they are going to spread it around. He wouldnt close casinos until people were walking out of their dying. Now he is talking about airplanes. I wonder if naples airport. Are they going to have state patrol out there stopping hannitys jet when it flies in from new york . Or, some of the other large gop donors when they fly across the country echo fly across the country . Typically, constitutions outline

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