The Thicket at State Legislatures

Immigration Reform: “Now is the Time to Get it Done”

By Ann Morse

President Obama invited a wide range of stakeholders to the White House on Tuesday as the U.S. Senate took up S.744, the first comprehensive immigration reform bill the Senate has considered since 2007. The Senate, in a strong showing of bipartisan support, voted 82-15 to proceed. If enacted, this would be the first overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws since 1986.

At the event in the White House East Room were two of NCSL’s legislative leaders, Senator Mo Denis (D), majority leader of Nevada, and Senator Curt Bramble (R), Senate president pro tem of Utah, who serve on NCSL’s Task Force on Immigration and the States. The Senators were accompanied by NCSL immigration policy staff Sheri Steisel and Ann Morse.

 

Senator Curt Bramble (R), Senate president pro tem of Utah, left, and Senator Mo Denis (D), majority leader of Nevada

The president expressed strong support for the bipartisan bill, noting that it includes increased spending for border enforcement and more enforcement at the workplace while encouraging talented workers and students to remain in the U.S. Obama also mentioned the bill’s earned path to citizenship for the 11 million unauthorized immigrants already here.

 

“Fixing the nation’s broken immigration system is an economic, national security, and moral imperative,” said Obama. “Now, this bill isn’t perfect. It’s a compromise. And going forward, nobody is going to get everything that they want - not Democrats, not Republicans, not me. But this is a bill that’s largely consistent with the principles that I and the people on this stage have laid out for common-sense reform.”

While there are state concerns that need to be addressed in the final legislation,  Denis and Bramble stressed that the current immigration system is broken, and that action at the federal level is long overdue.

“Now is the time for the country to come together and for members of both the House and Senate to be statesmen,” said Bramble. “This is a challenge of our time, and doing nothing is simply no longer an option.”

Denis concurred: “I have been tremendously impressed by some on both sides of the aisle here in Washington that have been working together to get this important legislation passed.”

Also participating in the event was former Minnesota State Senator Mee Moua, the first Hmong state legislator in the country. Moua is now executive director of the Asian American Justice Center. She applauded the work of NCSL, and the leadership of senators Bramble and Denis in working across the aisle to advance immigration reform.

A number of Cabinet secretaries were in attendance, notably Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Commerce Secretary-nominee Penny Pritzker and Attorney General Eric Holder.

Speaking with the Attorney General after the event, Bramble took the opportunity to reiterate Utah’s case for a federal waiver providing legal recognition of immigrant workers (part of Utah’s immigration reform law of 2011).

Others invited to the event included business and labor leaders, Republican and Democratic elected officials, law enforcement officers and faith and civil rights leaders.

Ann Morse is the director of NCSL’s Immigrant Policy Project, and works in NCSL’s Washington, D.C. office.

Longtime Florida House Sergeant at Arms Earnie Sumner Receives Emotional Farewell Upon His Retirement

By Morgan Cullen

 

Earnie Sumner, right, with Deputy House Sergeant at Arms Marty McDonald in the House chamber on Earnie’s last day of session.

Longtime Florida House Sergeant at Arms and NCSL Officer, Earnest “Earnie” Sumner will be retiring next month after 42 years of legislative service.  Earnie began his distinguished career with the Florida Legislature in 1971 as an OPS (part time) employee and was named House Sergeant at Arms by Speaker Daniel Webster in 1998.  Over the course of his career, Earnie served the Florida House of Representatives for 138 legislative sessions in a variety of capacities.

Maintaining chamber security and decorum, keeping up capitol properties and facilities, coordinating office moves and travel logistics, overseeing emergency planning and meeting the daily needs of the chamber’s 120 members are just some of the responsibilities that Earnie consistently managed on a daily basis.  Last week, the House honored Earnie’s career with an official House resolution and no fewer than four standing ovations from the members he has served for so many years.  Speaker Will Weatherford also announced that a House Meeting Room would be named “Sumner Hall” in Earnie’s honor.    

In addition to his storied career in the Florida House, Earnie was also very active at NCSL for many years.  In 1978, Earnie became a member of the National Legislative Services and Security Association (NLSSA), one of NCSL’s 10 staff sections committed to the professional development of security and services personnel throughout the country.  Over his 34 years with NLSSA, Earnie served on the organization’s executive board in a number of capacities, including two terms as NLSSA president (2006-2008).    

As a member of NLSSA, Earnie maintained a strong commitment to the legislative institution and was dedicated to the professional development of new staff members both in Florida and around the country.  Earnie understood the importance of developing new talent and viewed NCSL as an opportunity to pass on the professional expertise he had acquired over his career.  It was through this commitment that Earnie was awarded all three of the organization’s service awards, the Legislative Staff Achievement Award (2002), The John Everhardt “Trooper” Award (2003) and the Tony Beard Memorial Award (2008). 

 

Earnie Sumner

Earnie also served NCSL on the Legislative Staff Coordinating Committee (LSCC) and the Executive Committee where he made the continued development of legislative staff a top priority.  NCSL Executive Director, Bill Pound was sad to hear that NCSL would be losing such a valued asset.  “Earnie Sumner’s well deserved retirement is a loss not only to the Florida House, but to NLSSA and NCSL. Earnie has been a leader of NLSSA for many years and represented the staff section and Florida well on the NCSL Executive Committee. It is gratifying to see the recognition accorded him by the Florida House on his retirement.”

 

Fracking at the Spring Forum: Panelists drill down for answers

By Mark Wolf

Hydraulic fracturing, the practice of extracting natural gas by using pressurized liquid to fracture rocks and commonly known as “fracking,”  presents great opportunities if done well­—and significant problems if not. Such was the framework the participants sketched during “The Natural Gas Bonanza,” a general session at NCSL’s Spring Forum.

“The controversy goes back to the advent of hydraulic fracturing,” said former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, now director of the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University.

"We’ve had modernization of the rules but they haven’t kept up with the technology,” said Ritter, who acknowledged his administration “made some mistakes” in dealing with the issue.

Ritter said his message to states, the industry and environmentalists was that “We’re not going to see a cessation of this activity in America. It is important from an environmental and economic perspective,” and that questions have to be answered about whether it can be done in an environmentally friendly way.

Scott Moore, vice president of marketing for Anadarko Petroleum Company, said fracturing, “is a highly-engineered, safe and proven technology that takes place miles underground.”

Dan Grossman, regional director for the Environmental Defense Fund's Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Boulder, Colo., who served 10 years in the Colrado General Assembly, said natural gas has the potential for creating less air pollution than coal but was fraught with risk, including ground- and surface-water contamination if not done correctly.

He said the industry must be held to zero tolerance standards regarding the emission of methane.

Tisha Conoly Schuller, president and chief executive officer of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, advised legislators “to educate yourself, which is yeoman’s work. Be cognizant of the noisiness. What’s the experience of places that have had this activity?”

'The Silver Tsunami' offers challenges, opportunities

James Johnson Jr. discusses the "Silver Tsunami" during the opening general session of NCSL's Spring Forum

 

 

By Mark Wolf

Everyone knows America is getting older: hip one day, hip replacement the next. Baby boomers are becoming seniors at a dizzying rate and birth rates are down. We may not be far from centenarians standing on their front porches and yelling at octogenarians, “You kids get off my grass.”

James Johnson Jr. captivated the opening general session of NCSL’s Spring Forum with a mix of statistics (the 65-plus demographic grew 12.8 percent in the 2010 census while the 25-44 group lost 2.2 percent), anecdotes (“CVS dropped the height of their shelves to accommodate the aging population”) and projections for the impact on society that spanned from dire to optimistic.

Eschewing the podium and wading into the crowd of attendees as if he was engaging an eager classroom, the professor at the Kenan Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, touched on a wide variety of social and economic impacts of “The Silver Tsunami.”

“We are in the midst of a profound demographic transition,” said Johnson, adding that every region and every state is part of the process.

Calling the South the “cat’s meow” of demographic revival, Johnson noted that it had recorded slightly more than half (51.4 percent) of the nation’s growth from 2000 to 2009. ‘And somebody loses in that equation,” he said.

A rapid increase in “marrying out” (couples marrying across racial and ethnic lines) is contributing to what he called “the browning of America” and will lead to a dramatic transformation in families.

“Children (of these families) who walk in school doors will be radically different,” he said.

Healthier living habits and the promise of regenerative medicine are expected to make the aging population even older, which, combined with a lower birth rate producing fewer young workers,  presents tremendous challenges including the sustainability of Social Security.

“We need every young person we can get and we need to educate them to the best of our abilities,” he said.

Eldercare, he said, is going to require dramatic transformations in society. “Childcare is routineized. You drop them off at 8, pick them up at 5. Eldercare is 24/7 365 days.  Today, work organizes our lives. In the future, life will organize work. We are going to have to be agile and flexible organizations to accommodate.”

Still, Johnson stressed, the “silver tsunami” can offer huge opportunities for innovation and job creation, especially in fields designed to help seniors stay in their homes and to prevent falls: “The longer we can keep people in their homes, the better off they’re going to be and we’re going to be.”

Trying to transform mental health treatment

By Ed Smith

"I'm here representing the largest mental health institutions in the United States--local jails and state prisons."

That was how Sheriff Grayson Robinson, of Arapahoe County in Colorado, opened his remarks Thursday at NCSL's Spring Forum session "Revisiting Mental Health Needs and Services."

"There's one sadder comment," Robinson added. "We are ill-prepared to do that service that is expected of us."

The remarks were poignant in a state that has experienced its share of tragedies, from the Columbine High School attack in 1999 to last summer's mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, that later were shown to have links to mental illness. The session also came as the Colorado legislature is considering a package of mental health bills in the wake of the movie theater shooting.

Robinson said he was hopeful that the legislation now under consideration--the $19 million package includes an expansion of crisis response, community treatment and treatment in jails--would reduce recidivism.

"If you look at the recidivism rate, it has to do with addiction and mental health. That should be a signal to all of us that we're not doing something right," Robinson said. "If we gave them more treatment in the jail, when they leave maybe there will be less chance of them coming back."

Lisa Clements, director of Colorado's Office of Behavioral Health, said Governor John Hickenlooper's commitment will make a difference.

 "Now we're looking at how to get crisis response out to every Coloradan" regardless of where that person lives, their income or other circumstances.

Don Mares, CEO and president of Mental Health America of Colorado, said he believed those backing the mental health legislation in the state were committed to long term pursuit of the issue. And appropriately so, he added, since mental health issues affect one-quarter of people in the country.

"I think that it impacts us all," said Mares, a former state legislator. "It's part of being a human being. It's part of who we are."

Despite the challenge today in passing legislation addressing behavioral health issues, Mares said it's a transformation from 20 years ago when he was promoting a mental health-related legislation.

Two decades ago, for many people such legislation was "a complete waste of money." Now, he added,  we're at point where "people think it's real."

Safe, confidential ways of reporting threatening behavior are crucial

Senator John W. Ford of Oklahoma moderated the panel, which included Susan Payne of Safe2tell

 

By Mark Wolf

 If society wants people to “see something and say something” when they observe a potentially dangerous or threatening situation, they must be provided with safe and confidential ways to do it.

 That was the message Susan Payne delivered to the “Can Violence Be Prevented?” session on the first day of NCSL’s Spring Forum.

 Payne is a veteran law enforcement officer and founding executive director of Safe2tell, a Colorado hotline that allows people to report  any threatening behaviors or activities endangering themselves or someone they know. By state law, all safe2tell reporters are unknown (83 percent of the reports are transmitted electronically).

 Payne, director of Safe Schools for the Colorado attorney general, said 93 percent of perpetrators of targeted school violence exhibited concerning behavior before the attack and that in 81% of those incidents, someone knew it was going to happen but failed to report it.

 “Bystanders are the key. They are the witnesses,” said Payne. “We have to encourage them and educate them with a way to speak up when someone’s life is in danger.”

 Schools and communities need to do a survey on the climate of the school to determine if they are safe, said William Woodward, director of training and technical assistance at the University of Colorado’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.

  “If your schools aren’t doing climate surveys, it would be like you going to the doctor and him saying, ‘You look kind of peaked today, take four aspirin. Before you can go into a school and say this program will fix it or that program will fix it you have to have a survey,” said Woodward, who also shared research on risk factors for adolescent problem behaviors.

 

Safe, confidential ways of reporting threatening behavior are crucial

Senator John W. Ford of Oklahoma moderated the panel, which included Susan Payne of Safe2tell

 

By Mark Wolf

 If society wants people to “see something and say something” when they observe a potentially dangerous or threatening situation, they must be provided with safe and confidential ways to do it.

 That was the message Susan Payne delivered to the “Can Violence Be Prevented?” session on the first day of NCSL’s Spring Forum.

 Payne is a veteran law enforcement officer and founding executive director of Safe2tell, a Colorado hotline that allows people to report  any threatening behaviors or activities endangering themselves or someone they know. By state law, all safe2tell reporters are unknown (83 percent of the reports are transmitted electronically).

 Payne, director of Safe Schools for the Colorado attorney general, said 93 percent of perpetrators of targeted school violence exhibited concerning behavior before the attack and that in 81% of those incidents, someone knew it was going to happen but failed to report it.

 “Bystanders are the key. They are the witnesses,” said Payne. “We have to encourage them and educate them with a way to speak up when someone’s life is in danger.”

 Schools and communities need to do a survey on the climate of the school to determine if they are safe, said William Woodward, director of training and technical assistance at the University of Colorado’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.

  “If your schools aren’t doing climate surveys, it would be like you going to the doctor and him saying, ‘You look kind of peaked today, take four aspirin. Before you can go into a school and say this program will fix it or that program will fix it you have to have a survey,” said Woodward, who also shared research on risk factors for adolescent problem behaviors.

 

NCSL President-elect Senator Bruce Starr Tells House Subcommittee How MAP-21 is Faring At State Level

By Ben Husch

NCSL President-elect Senator Bruce Starr (R-Ore.) told a House subcommittee on Thursday how the implementation of Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21^st Century Act (MAP-21) is faring at the state level. MAP-21 was enacted in 2012 and governs the funding and authorization of federal surface and transportation spending.

Testifying before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, Starr discussed how states are being affected by a number of changes within MAP-21, including the development of national performance measures, program consolidation and the expansion of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA).

He stressed the need for the federal government to establish a cooperative process through which the performance measures can be crafted. Starr urged the U.S. Department of Transportation to recognize and build off the extensive work states have already completed.

Reporting on states’ satisfaction with program consolidation, Starr explained how it’s allowing states to make it easier for users to acquire funding without having to submit multiple grant applications to multiple programs.  Regarding TIFIA, Starr highlighted how his home state of Oregon is working with the state of Washington to develop a proposal that would increase overall funding for the construction of the I-5 Columbia River Crossing.

During a question-and-answer session with subcommittee members following his testimony, Starr highlighted how states are engaged in numerous efforts to increase funding for transportation programs, ranging from increasing gasoline taxes to indexing current tax rates to implementing new sales taxes. He also urged the committee to look at other forms of funding, including the pilot projects Oregon has taken part in that charge users different amounts based on the number of miles they travel.

The future of transportation will be a major area of focus for the Energy, Transportation and Agriculture Committee next week at the NCSL Spring Forum in Denver, Colorado.

Ben Husch is the committee director of the NCSL Energy, Transportation and Agriculture Committee.

 

States Enacting Online Voter Registration

By Karen Shanton and Wendy Underhill

Online voter registration was one of the top trends in election legislation last year. Twenty states considered online registration bills in 2012; five passed them into law.

This trend has carried over into 2013. Governor Bob McDonnell signed Virginia's online registration bill (HB 2341) on March 18 and a similar bill (HB 225) is on the governor's desk in New Mexico. On March 20, the West Virginia Senate sent an online registration bill (SB 477) to the state House for consideration. Legislation is also pending in another 11 states.

If you're interested in tracking this trend, NCSL can help. We have a range of online registration resources on hand, including:

• Electronic (or Online) Voter Registration page: An overview of states' current online registration practices and pending online registration legislation.
• Video interviews: Interviews about online registration with David Becker (from the Pew Center on the States), Shane Hamlin (Washington's assistant director of elections) and Tammy Patrick (the federal compliance officer from Maricopa County, Ariz.).
• Online Voter Registration: Coming to a State Near You?: A 2011 article that provides an accessible introduction to the history, workings and pros and cons of online voter registration.
• 2011-2013 Elections Legislation Database: A searchable database of past and pending legislation on a range of elections-related topics. Use "Registration-Electronic" to narrow the search.
• Online Voter Registration Security (coming soon): An interview with University of Michigan computer scientist J. Alex Halderman about securing online registration systems.

Outside NCSL, the Pew Center on the States' 2012 report, Inaccurate, Costly and Inefficient: Evidence that America's Voter Registration System Needs an Upgrade, is another valuable resource.

For more information about online registration, give us a call at 303-364-7700 or drop us a line.

FAQs on pre-Election Day Voting

By Karen Shanton and Wendy Underhill

The elections team at NCSL is continuing to think about the questions the Presidential Commission on Election Administration is likely to address and lining up resources that can provide answers.

Today's topic: pre-Election Day voting. Allowing voters to cast ballots early is one way to help reduce lines at the polls on Election Day. (Of course, wait times at early voting sites are a different matter.)

There are three main categories of pre-Election Day, sometimes called "convenience," voting:

• Early in-person voting: Voters cast ballots at a county office or other officially designated site before Election Day.
• Absentee voting: Voters request ballots, which they submit by mail or at a designated drop-off point. Some states allow any registered voter to request an absentee ballot (no-excuse absentee voting) while others only permit absentee voting in certain circumstances.
• All-mail elections: Voters are automatically sent ballots, which they submit by mail or at a designated drop-off point.

All of these are alternatives to traditional voting at a neighborhood polling place on Election Day.

NCSL has a range of resources on pre-Election Day voting, including:

• Absentee and Early Voting webpage: An overview of states' current pre-Election Day voting practices.
• Pre-Election Day Voting: Just the FAQ's, Ma'am: An accessible introduction to the basic facts, pros and cons of pre-Election Day voting.
• 2011-2013 Elections Legislation Database: A searchable database of past and pending legislation on a range of elections-related topics, including forms of pre-Election Day voting.
• State-Based Election Reports, 2011-2013: A compilation of best practices, after-action reports and process reviews of election procedures, including forms of pre-Election Day voting.

Outside NCSL, here are a couple of resources worth looking into:

The Early Voting Information Center (EVIC) at Reed College: Directed by elections expert Paul Gronke, the EVIC explores the political and administrative ramifications of increasing early voting options.

Voting: What Has Changed, What Hasn't and What Needs Improvement: This report, from the CalTech/MIT Voting Technology Project, includes a detailed discussion of early and absentee voting.

As with all elections issues, feel free to call us at 303-364-7700 or send us an email if you have questions about pre-Election Day voting.