LANSING – The nation’s top policymakers come together next week in back-to-back summer conferences, with health care the chief focus of the governors from around the country and the economy getting top billing for legislators.
In addition to the formal agenda, politics in this closely-contested presidential election year is certain to be a dominant subtopic at the meeting of the governors and legislators will get a campaign overview from top national figures.
In addition, Gov. Jennifer Granholm plans to use some of her time at the 96th National Governors Association meeting in Seattle to continue the drum beat for passage of a new federal transportation formula. The governor is pressing for approval of the Senate-passed version of the stalled transportation bill, which raises the level of funding going to so-called donor states like Michigan but which is opposed by President Bush as too costly.
Granholm spokesperson Mary Dettloff said approval is needed to “create jobs and fix our roads.”
Granholm will also discuss broader job and economic development issues during a Saturday meeting with other Democratic governors, Dettloff said. The economy is a central theme in the campaign of Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry, and Michigan, Ohio and other battleground states continue to see a drain in their manufacturing job base.
Sunday’s opening plenary session will see the discussion of a new NGA report highlighting the top 20 actions governors can take to improve long-term care. Addressing the governors on using technology to help communities deal with an aging population will be Eric Dishman, director and principal research scientist for Intel Proactive Health Research and national chair of the Center for Aging Services Technologies, and John Fregonese of Fregonese Calthorpe Associates.
The NGA’s Health and Human Services Committee, of which Ms. Granholm is a member, will carry on health care discussion as it takes up the issue of quality, affordable health insurance in a panel discussion with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.
The meeting wraps up with a Monday plenary session, joined by former Republican U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, on ways to enhance health care while controlling costs.
The governors’ social calendar at the conference includes a Saturday evening party at the massive, high-tech suburban Seattle home of Microsoft founder and president, Bill Gates.
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