The Thicket at State Legislatures

Delegate Jameson Testifies on Nuclear Waste Storage and Disposal before U.S. Senate Committee

By Melanie Condon

Delegate Sally Young Jameson of Maryland testifying before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

On July 30, Delegate Sally Young Jameson of Maryland testified on behalf of NCSL before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to discuss the recently introduced Nuclear Waste Administration Act of 2013 (NWAA), S. 1240. Delegate Jameson, whose Maryland district borders the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, has long been involved with issues of nuclear waste disposal and storage, and has twice provided testimony to the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.

Delegate Jameson’s testimony applauded the bi-partisan work of Senators Wyden, Murkowski, Feinstein and Alexander to move comprehensive policy on the permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel forward. In her testimony, Delegate Jameson noted the consent-based approach with state and local governments throughout the disposal siting processes.

Although the process has generally been positive, Jameson pointed out how important it is for state legislatures to be involved. Specifically, Delegate Jameson suggested adding the phrase “presiding officer of each legislative chamber” to the bill’s current language of “Governor or duly authorized official of the state.”

Also testifying before the Committee was newly confirmed U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. Secretary Moniz noted that, in his opinion, one of the most important pieces of the NWAA is the consent-based approach of working with state, local and tribal governments throughout the waste disposal life-cycle, saying that the legislation wouldn’t be workable without state consent.

The NCSL Natural Resources and Infrastructure Committee will be holding a session, moderated by Delegate Jameson, on the future of the NWAA and nuclear waste storage at the upcoming Legislative Summit in Atlanta on August 13.

Melanie Condon is a policy associate for the Agriculture, Energy, Environment and Transportation Committee in NCSL’s Washington, D.C. office.

Human Trafficking: Mira Sorvino Urges State Legislators to Continue to Fight

By Alex Fitzsimmons

Human trafficking is a $32 billion industry that ensnares hundreds of thousands of victims each year, including an estimated 100,000 children. States play a key role in combating human trafficking, but could do more to eliminate the scourge of “modern-day slavery,” said Oscar-winning actress and UN Goodwill Ambassador Mira Sorvino at the National Conference of State Legislatures’ (NCSL) Fall Forum in Washington, D.C.

Speaking at the Forum’s plenary session on Thursday, Sorvino offered recommendations for improving the legal framework for states to punish traffickers and support survivors. Specifically, she urged states to strengthen “safe harbor” protections for minors, pass more robust asset forfeiture laws to make business more costly for traffickers, and crack down on the “Johns” who she said are often let off the hook.

“It’s not okay to just do it from the supply side,” she said in pushing for a strategy that combats demand as well as supply. “The atmosphere of vulgar profit and impunity must end.”

Sorvino, who presented a litany of charts, graphs, and issue briefs for attendees to digest, highlighted a map produced by the Polaris Project that ranks all 50 states on 10 categories of laws deemed critical for curtailing human trafficking. Polaris ranked 21 states in the top tier for passing “significant laws” related to human trafficking, while relegating 13 states to the bottom two tiers for making “nominal efforts” to address the issue.

After sketching out the major themes in human trafficking and imploring the assembled legislators and legislative staff to act, Sorvino turned the floor over to Holly Smith, a human trafficking survivor. Smith said she was forced into prostitution in Atlantic City after running away from home at age 14.

“I stand here today to tell you that victims or human trafficking are not lost causes,” said Smith, who said she graduated from college with high marks and became a microbiologist after escaping her traffickers. Smith is living proof that, as Polaris puts it, “what you’ve been through is not who you are.”

During the 2011 and 2012 legislative sessions, 40 states enacted 168 laws related to human trafficking, according to NCSL’s Criminal Justice Program. Perhaps Sorvino’s appeal will help push that number even higher in 2013.

“Will we be able to look our children in the eye and tell them we did everything we could?” asked Sorvino.

 Click here for POLITICO’s coverage of Mira Sorvino’s plenary speech at NCSL’s Fall Forum.

 

Paltry Participation: 1.6 Percent Report Use Taxes

By Alex Fitzsimmons

People who make out-of-state purchases, including over the Internet, are supposed to pay sales and use taxes on those purchases. But as a new study indicates, just a tiny number of people actually report the use taxes they owe.

Only 1.6 percent of taxpayers nationwide reported use taxes on their 2009 tax returns, according to data from a Minnesota state House report. Rhode Island had the lowest participation rate, with only 0.2 percent of taxpayers reporting use taxes.

At a Senate Finance Committee hearing last week, NCSL submitted written testimony in support of the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would provide states the authority to require remote sellers to collect state sales taxes. The Marketplace Fairness Act, which enjoys bipartisan support in Congress, would close this tax loophole and level the playing field for brick-and-mortar stores, many of which are small businesses.

“Let us make this very clear: State legislators are not advocating any new or discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce,” wrote NCSL’s Task Force on State and Local Taxation of Communications & Electronic Commerce. “We desire, however, to establish a simplified sales and use tax collection system that allows sellers, regardless of where they are located, to collect and remit the legally owed sales and use taxes.”

“We need to make sure our federal, state and local tax systems are working together,” said Senator Max Baucus (D), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “As part of tax reform, we should ask how we can help states collect taxes owed and how we can encourage standard rules to protect taxpayers from multiple taxes and needless complexity.”

NCSL announced its support for the Marketplace Fairness Act last November. In a letter to congressional leaders, NCSL praised the bipartisan group of co-sponsors for attempting to close the sales tax loophole.

States and localities in 2012 will lose about $23 billion in uncollected sales and use taxes, with more than $11.4 billion from e-commerce sales, according to a University of Tennessee study. The same study found that only 4 percent of buyers said the collection of a use tax would affect their decision to purchase products online.

Unified Message For Congress: Reauthorize ESEA

By Lee Posey

State and local organizations have a unified message for Congress: reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education act!

NCSL has joined with nine other organizations to form a coalition to lobby for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The “State and Local Governance Coalition” is launching an unprecedented coordinated campaign to encourage Congress to push forward on completing work on this important law.

Organizations in the coalition, in addition to NCSL, include: National Governors Association, The Council of State Governments, National Association of Counties, National League of Cities, The U.S. Conference of Mayors, International City/County Management Association, Council of Chief State School Officers, National Association of State Boards of Education and National School Boards Association.

Both the U.S. House and Senate have passed ESEA reauthorization legislation in their respective education committees, but congressional action before the full chambers has stalled. An initial letter to the Hill on February 6 reiterated the need for congressional “leadership and urgency” and urged Congress to remove restrictive and unnecessary federal policies that limit innovation at the state and local level.

The letter enumerated several basic principles the coalition supports:
•    Greater flexibility for state and local leaders in terms of education accountability structures
•    Increased flexibility in using federal education funds
•    Recognition of state and local budget challenges
•    Streamlining of federal red tape and compliance requirements
•    Streamlining of the NCLB waiver process

To build momentum around reauthorization, representatives of the coalition have been meeting with staff of the relevant congressional committees and subcommittees. Following the Hill visits, the coalition will continue a communication strategy designed help members of Congress understand that policymakers at the state, local and school district level need certainty in federal policy at a time when they are struggling with reallocating scarce education resources to fund what works. And they need federal policy that encourages state and local innovation instead of focusing on process and compliance.

In the absence of congressional action on ESEA, many states have turned to the immediate flexibility offered by the U.S. Department of Education through the waiver process. While the waivers have provided temporary relief from specific provisions of the law for some states, the states that haven’t qualified for the waivers are left struggling to meet the unreasonable requirements of NCLB.

Photo courtesy of iStock

"To My Great Shame"

by Peggy Kerns

Convicted felon Jack Abramoff stood before the Kentucky legislature and bared his soul, opening up about his years as a Washington lobbyist and his conviction for fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy.  Though he has spoken at Harvard and on hundreds of television and radio programs, this was his first time speaking to a state legislative body.

“I thought of myself as a strategic adviser, not a lobbyist,” he said.  “I believed I was doing what everyone else was doing–only I was doing it better,” Abramoff added. “I always thought−if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing.” He attributed this arrogance to thinking he was above the law.  “I lost sight of the line in the sand and of right and wrong,” he said. “To my great shame.”

From his prison cell, Abramoff decided that he had a base of knowledge that he should not waste. To try to rectify his crimes, his new mission is to educate lawmakers and the public about how the system should be reformed. 

Abramoff spoke at the annual ethics training sponsored by the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission. Previous speakers included respected names such as Norman Ornstein, American Enterprise Institute, and Rushworth Kidder, Institute for Global Ethics.  This year, the commission reached beyond “safe” speakers and brought in Abramoff.  His speaking fee of $5,000 is the price the commission normally pays.  In Abramoff’s case, his fee goes toward his $44 million debt in court-ordered restitution to Indian tribes and other clients.  He also is promoting his book, Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption From American’s Most Notorious Lobbyist. 

Initially, the appearance of Abramoff was controversial among many Kentucky legislators. After hearing his speech, some changed their minds.  Legislators from both sides of the aisle thought Abramoff had significant things to say, according to the Courier-Journal.  Speaker Greg Stumbo said the talk will help lawmakers discern what is proper in their relationships with lobbyists.  Rep. Mike Harmon said he had some reservations initially, but believes Abramoff made some good points and was worth the speaking fee.

Lobbyists in Love and Marriage

The Sacramento Bee earlier this week featured a story on a dozen or so married couples among the California lobbying corps:

...Political romances are not uncommon, but lobbyists who fall in love face unique circumstances.

Some become business partners, turning their love for politics – and each other – into a family enterprise. Others work separately and must navigate how to honor their marriage and their clients, without creating conflicts for either one.

Many lobbyist couples tout the benefits of sharing a life with someone from the same industry: a spouse who understands the demanding hours of the job, an extra set of ears gathering intelligence around the Capitol, the ease of entertaining politicians together.

The story goes on to tell about couples who timed their weddings according to the session calendar and one that even managed the birth of their child to avoid the legislative session. And it includes a juicy quote from a wife who discovered that her husband had been working against her to pigeonhole a bill in committee for several months without her knowing it:

"I see him in the hallway the next day slithering about – when his head is down and he doesn't make eye contact and his hands are behind his back, I know I'm in trouble," Brown said. "So I stopped him and said, 'If I don't get a motion on this bill in public safety, you and I are going to have problems.' "

Fixing Congress

Two items today about strengthening Congress, one noteworthy for what is not being proposed and the other for its succinct, useful list of ideas and sage conclusions.

From the Washington Post on term limits for Congress:

In 1994, the last time there was a conservative grass-roots revolution, term limits were front and center. The Republican-written Contract With America included a vow to hold a vote on a term-limits amendment, and candidates nationwide got mileage out of pledging to back the bill or to limit their own service.

Yet in 2010, neither the Contract From America, endorsed by a host of conservative groups, nor the Pledge to America, written by House Republican leaders, mentioned term limits.

Even as the tea party movement swept the nation with calls to buck the political establishment and elect “citizen-legislators,” term limits were not high on the agenda.

And from the venerable Lee Hamilton, the former member of Congress who directs the Center on Congress, reflecting on the loss of public confidence in the legislative branch:

Removing the roadblocks to institutional effectiveness will take hard work. Congress has gotten its house in order before, however, and it can do so again.

It could start by addressing the filibuster rule, which effectively requires 60 votes in the Senate in order to move most legislation, a formidable hurdle in a closely divided Senate. In the name of efficiency, Congress routinely embraces giant omnibus bills which allow the leadership basically to undermine the deliberation, transparency, and accountability we expect and need in our system; it needs to return to the regular order developed by Congress over many decades.

The country also needs more robust congressional oversight into every nook and cranny of government, and a vigorous ethics system which enforces the basic rule that every member act in such a manner as to reflect credit on the institution.

A Congress seriously interested in effectiveness would pursue procedural fixes to reduce the excessive partisanship that too often paralyzes Capitol Hill. None of them are mysterious: redressing the outsized role of special-interest money in elections; reducing partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts; eliminating closed state primaries, which enable ideological activists to dominate elections; and wringing the intense partisanship of committee staffers out of the legislative process.

Hamilton goes beyond these procedural reforms to bemoan a loss of commitment by members of Congress to "a search for a remedy" (Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s phrase) and concludes:

It is not hard to find members on the Hill who speak for a defined narrow interest. It is much harder, though not impossible, to find members who search for a remedy, as opposed to a political position. We need more members who reflect the diversity of this great and varied country yet work to bring it together, not tear it asunder.

Turning Congress around will take some effort. But make no mistake. Congress can live up to the faith our Constitution and our democracy place in it. But we, as Americans, have to insist that the people we elect make this a priority. Congress has to want to change, and we as voters have a major role to play in helping to bring that about. 

Even the Bored Deserve Representation

by Karl Kurtz

Matthias Poehm, founder of the Anti-PowerPoint Party (APPP) in Switzerland, estimates that 11 percent of the Swiss population has to endure two PowerPoint presentations per week and claims that this loss of productivity costs Switzerland $2.4 billion annually. These unsubstantiated claims have drawn a lot of chatter and laughter on the Web, no doubt striking a chord because all of us have been subjected to bad, even terrible, PowerPoint presentations.

What I like the best, though, is this statement on the party's web site, reported in The Envoy:

"The APPP regards itself as the advocate of approximately 250 million world citizens (500 000 in Switzerland) who, every month, are obliged to be present at boring presentations in companies, at universities or at schools and who, up to now, have not found a political representation in politics," the party website states.

It's a reminder that in a representative democracy virtually every interest, no matter how small or narrow, has an advocate in the form of a political party or group.

Microsoft, a powerful advocate on the oher side, has chosen not to comment according to the Wall Street Journal, other than to say that Poehm is using a guerilla marketing tactic to sell his book--join his party and you get a discount on his book.

“Mobilized” Citizens

by Pam Greenberg

More than 58 million people use smartphones like the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android phones in the U.S., and more than a billion apps have been downloaded to those devices.

A tiny, but growing, percentage of those apps are created for the legislative world. Some, like the New York Senate’s mobile apps, were designed by legislative staff.  But there are many others created by private developers, designed to provide access to more types of legislative information and a faster, easier way of connecting to legislators.

For example, one developer offers a $4.99 iPhone/iPod/Ipad statute app with drill-down and searchable access to the text of laws in 29 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Another offers statutes from 12 states, at $12.99 each. 

Other apps provide standard information about legislators: address, district location and number, party affiliation, member contact form, committee assignments, and a bio.  One company offers apps for more than a dozen state legislatures (and 11 more in the works), at a cost ranging from 99 cents to $29.99, depending on the information and frequency of updates.  For some of these states, there’s also the name of a members’ chief of staff or legislative aide and a link to the office phone number, along with campaign information, such as the percent of vote won in the most recent election, the name of the top opponent and other information.  The developer promises to provide updates throughout the one-year subscription period.  With this app, the developer says, you can have every member of the legislature “in YOUR pocket.”

Another $9.99  iPhone app provides a similar directory of legislators, but also adds a blue-to-red voting bar with a star that gives “an estimated ideal point derived from legislative roll call votes” to show how a member voted compared to others in each party.

The 2010 Election Will Shape the Political Landscape for the Next 10 Years

NCSL Communications Division

Tuesday night’s GOP power sweep exceeded expectations, giving the party its largest number of seats since the Great Depression.

Republicans now hold about 3,890, or 53 percent, of the total state legislative seats in America, the most seats in the GOP column since 1928. The GOP will now control at least 54 of the 99 state legislative chambers, its highest number since 1952. As a result, state legislatures will likely reflect a more conservative political agenda when they convene in 2011.

Watch the video with NCSL's elections expert, Tim Storey, give an overview of the 2010 state legislative election.

 

Read NCSL's press release on how Republicans in 2010 state legislative elections.

For a detailed breakdown of state legislative elections and the results of ballot measures, log onto StateVote 2010.