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SPRING FORUM

April 24 - 27, 2003
Boston Park Plaza Hotel
Boston, Massachusetts

Meeting Summary

How Can Rural Development and Health and Human Services Improve Small Communities? The Role of States
Convened by NCSL with support from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) Office of Rural Health Policy.

State lawmakers and rural and economic development, health and human service officials representing 20 states and American Samoa convened to debate and discuss opportunities for states to effectively link their rural development initiatives to improving small town health care and human services. The meeting addressed three major themes:

• How Rural Development Can Be a Player in Improving Health Care in Small Communities, through development of comprehensive state rural development organizations and creation of public telecommunications infrastructures,
• Using Economic Development to Strengthen the Rural Workforce and its Implications for Health and Human Services, particularly through the involvement and resources of state workforce investment boards and state health workforce commissions, and
• Finding Models to Improving Financial Access to Health and Human Services in Rural Areas, through outreach and service to rural Medicaid and TANF-eligible populations.

The meeting began with a series of NCSL-facilitated panel and small group discussions among participants structured to maximize audience participation and allow ample time for general discussion. Lawmakers in attendance learned about and debated the relevance of the above issues to their states and reached the following conclusions:

There was a consensus among workshop attendees for NCSL to convene additional forums for state officials that discuss challenges and opportunities for improving state rural health care programs and policy.

The budget challenges facing state legislatures this year are unprecedented. This session covered the latest economic trends and how state legislatures are coping with these tight fiscal times.

Speakers:

• Lynn Browne, Executive Vice President and Economic Advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Massachusetts
• Corina Eckl, Group Director, Fiscal Affairs Program, National Conference of State Legislatures, Colorado
• Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, Massachusetts
• Senator Lana Oleen, Senate Majority Leader, Kansas

Many states are dealing with the most disturbing fiscal conditions in a decade, presenting policymakers with both opportunities and significant challenges. How are these being handled? This roundtable discussion covered the latest approaches for dealing with state budget gaps.

Facilitator:

• Corina Eckl, Group Director, Fiscal Affairs Program, National Conference of State Legislatures, Colorado

• Senator Larry Mumper, Ohio and Vice-Chair, Agriculture & Rural Development Committee

• Members: As of April 23, 2003, the Committee has 117 legislator and legislative staff members.
• Priority issues: A survey of priority issues was distributed to Committee members in February. As of late April, 12 responses were received. The top issues of concern to respondents were: agricultural trade, comprehensive state rural development strategies, the federal Rural Strategic Investment Program, and rural business development/entrepreneurship. The next most important issues to respondents were: agricultural biotechnology, farmland preservation, and rural telecommunications. For a complete breakdown of survey results, contact Monica Kearns at (303) 364-7700 or monica.kearns@ncsl.org. The survey form will be included in the next mailing to Committee members for those who have not yet responded.
• Fall Forum 2002: Kentucky Representative Roger Thomas and Bobby Gierisch of Texas reported on the Fall Forum in December 2002. Both agreed that the meeting was productive despite the fact that Committee members still were getting accustomed to the new Committee structure and most sessions were organized as concurrents.
• Agricultural Chairs Summit: Ohio Senator Larry Mumper, Representative Thomas and Bobby Gierisch reported on the Legislative Agricultural Chairs Summit in Dallas in February 2003. This meeting was co-organized by NCSL, the Council of State Governments and the Rural Policy Research Institute. All agreed that this was a very good meeting with much good information and networking. Handouts from the meeting are available from http://www.ncsl.org/standcomm/scag/agmeetings.htm. There are plans to organize another Summit next year.
• Rural health pre-conference: Barry Denk of Pennsylvania and Bobby Gierisch reported on the rural health pre-conference for the Spring Forum 2003. They reported that it was particularly interesting to hear a presentation from the Annie E. Casey Foundation on how the foundation's concerns have evolved from looking only at children to looking at families and then communities. The foundation also has evolved from looking only at urban distressed areas to also considering rural distressed areas. Bobby Gierisch believes that the NCSL Agriculture & Rural Development Committee can be a forum for exploring concerns common to rural and urban areas. We should reach out to other NCSL Committees and plan joint sessions accordingly.

• The Committee reviewed and briefly discussed several lobbying policies that are due to expire and will need action at the NCSL Annual Meeting, including the Rural Strategic Investment Program (RSIP) Action Calendar Resolution, Agricultural Trade, and Intellectual Property Rights in Publicly-Funded Research as well as new policy, Rural Policy. Funding for the federal RSIP failed, so this policy may no longer be necessary unless the Committee wants to remain on record regarding this program. The Committee members expressed an interest in whether the NCSL Energy Committee has any policies that concern ethanol or agricultural additives for fuel. Jeremy will check on this. Committee members were interested in possibly considering a policy related to water issues at the Annual Meeting.
• No votes on policies were taken due to the lack of a quorum. Votes will be held at the Annual Meeting in San Francisco in July 2003.
• To receive copies of policies or to comment on them, contact Jeremy Meadows in NCSL's Washington, D.C., office at (202) 624-8664 or jeremy.meadows@ncsl.org.

The Committees heard presentations from the speakers/resource people and reviewed joint policy on this issue that will expire at the NCSL 2003 Annual Meeting.

The speakers noted that many state procurement preference policies will be affected by international trade agreements. States with significant agricultural subsidies also will be greatly affected, and agricultural biotechnology issues have a major role in trade discussions. Session attendees generally agreed that the NCSL policy could benefit from: mention of the Doha Round of trade talks, mention of agricultural biotechnology issues, consideration of what kind of federal trade adjustment assistance might be appropriate (certain regions and agricultural industries may need more help), and deletion of the reference to trade promotion authority (since this authority has been achieved).

Presiding:

• Representative Sharon Weston Broome, Louisiana and Chair, Economic Development, Trade & Cultural Affairs Committee

• Patricia Scroggs, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, U.S. Department of State, District of Columbia
• John Masswohl, Agriculture & Fisheries Counsellor, Canadian Embassy, District of Columbia
• William T. Waren, Fellow, Forum on Democracy & Trade, District of Columbia

The Committees may consider a policy on water issues at the NCSL 2003 Annual Meeting.

The speaker noted that at least 40 states have filed comments on the SWANCC decision, which concerns federal regulation of isolated waters. The comments are posted on the Internet at http://cascade.epa.gov/RightSite/dk_public_home.htm (docket no. OW-2002-0050).

Mr. Kinney has read through comments from nine states, which fall into the following general categories of opinion: no new rule is necessary (SWANCC is sufficient); a new rule is necessary; and some clarification of SWANCC may be necessary. Two meeting participants said that clarification would be helpful and NCSL could devise a policy to communicate this.

Presiding:

• Representative Roger Thomas, Kentucky and Vice-Chair, Agriculture & Rural Development Committee

• Robert J. Kinney, Chief Counsel for Environment, National Association of Attorneys General, District of Columbia

Cluster development is a relatively new state strategy to encourage business growth. Biotechnology-for agricultural, pharmaceutical, life sciences research and other industries-has emerged as such a cluster. This session examined the value of cluster development generally and Massachusetts' successful experience with a biotechnology cluster.

The speaker said that, in her view, the role of state government in promoting biotechnology development is to establish a transparent regulatory system, provide a single point of contact within state government, create incentives for companies to locate manufacturing facilities in the state, and fund and support a system for training entry-level biomanufacturing workers. The National Institute of Health is a primary source of public funding for biotechnology development. The importance of seed and venture capital and solid K-12 education systems were discussed as major concerns of biotech companies.

Representative Pope said that it would be helpful to understand where are the green (agricultural) biotechnology clusters compared to the red (medical) biotech clusters.

Presiding:

• Representative Sheryl Allen, Utah and Vice Chair, Economic Development, Trade & Cultural Affairs Committee
• Representative Clay Pope, Oklahoma and Vice Chair, Agriculture & Rural Development Committee

• Erin Flynn, Future Works, Massachusetts - "Biotechnology in Massachusetts" (PowerPoint Presentation)

This session was a roundtable discussion that touched on several rural policy themes, including the definition of "rural" and federal-state-local relationships on rural issues.

Barry Denk presented information on various ways rural areas can be defined. Pennsylvania uses a definition based on population density, which is calculated by dividing the number of persons in each county by the number of square land miles. In Pennsylvania, rural areas are defined as having less than 274 people per square mile.

Also during this session, Bobby Gierisch summarized the policy he developed, which is being sponsored by Oregon Representative Jeff Kropf, concerning broad rural development issues. Representative Pope suggested adding language concerning helping places that are losing their population.

The Committee decided that advance work is needed on policies to be voted on at the 2003 NCSL Annual Meeting. Jeremy Meadows said that policies and comments can be circulated via the Committee mailings and discussed on the listservs (see www.ncsl.org/standcomm/scag/scag.htm for subscription information).

Presiding:

• Bobby Gierisch, Texas and Staff Chair, Agriculture & Rural Development Committee

• Barry Denk, Executive Director, Center for Rural Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania and Vice Staff Chair, Agriculture & Rural Development Committee

State-federal policies adopted in Committee during the Spring Forum were considered, along with other business before the Forum, at this time.

12:15 pm-2:00 pm

Plenary Lunch: Leadership in Trying Times

2:15 pm-4:00 pm

Special Briefings * Economic Recovery * Prescription Drugs * Homeland Security

Ever been caught off-guard by a reporter, or wished you had answered an interview question differently? Participants in this session engaged in a hands-on workshop, designed especially for legislators and staff, to help sharpen skills for dealing with the media.

• Frank Kauffman, Fleishman-Hillard, District of Columbia

For additional information about the Agriculture & Rural Development Committee, please contact Jeremy Meadows at (202) 624-8664 or jeremy.meadows@ncsl.org or Monica Kearns at (303) 364-7700 or monica.kearns@ncsl.org. The committee web page address is http://www.ncsl.org/standcomm/scag/scag.htm.

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