Key Legislators Research Articles

Earth and space scientists Visit Capitol Hill

AGU's Office of Public Affairs organizes frequent opportunities for members to meet with Congress. Recently AGU members participated in two events: an annual Congressional Visits Day and the Coalition for National Science Funding congressional reception.Over 200 scientists and engineers met with key legislators and their staffs on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. as part of the 10th annual Science, Engineering, and Technology Congressional Visits Day (CVD) held on 10–11 May. In their meetings, participants advocated this year's CVD theme: Federally funded research secures our nation's future.

Advocacy: ASE working for you.

Advocacy: ASE working for you.

Clinicians Rack Up State Wins

Clinicians Rack Up State Wins

A is for Advocacy

A is for Advocacy

Five Years Later: Lessons Learned from Michigan's Commercial Gaming Regulatory System

ANY TIME CASINO GAMING is approved in a new jurisdiction, the inclination of those in government is to assure that the new regulatory system is “one of the toughest in the country.” Unfortunately, in most new jurisdictions, when casino gaming is mentioned, old images of organized crime and Bugsy Siegel come to mind. Over the years, Hollywood has fueled the fire of these outdated images with movies such as Bugsy and Casino. The net effect is that any new governmental body becomes convinced that it has to have the “toughest” standards. Logically, to assure this, a cadre of government attorneys look at all the various gaming statutes in existing jurisdictions and pick and choose provisions to create a patchwork quilt of a statute to raise the bar a little bit higher. Typically, in a new jurisdiction, the formulation of the new regulatory system is taking place amid a flurry of other activity (i.e., budget crisis, educational reform, etc.). Thus, those who are working on developing the system are, by necessity, moving very quickly and want to be extremely conservative and cautious to assure there are no loopholes. Thus, their tendency is to err on the side of caution and include tough provisions. The State of Michigan was no exception. After casino gaming was approved for the City of Detroit by a statewide voter referendum,1 some key officials felt that the new voter initiated state law was less than comprehensive. Republican Governor John Engler and Democratic Attorney General Frank Kelley, two long-time political foes, held an unprecedented joint press conference2 calling upon the state legislature to adopt comprehensive amendments to the state statute. Not surprisingly, Michigan officials looked at gaming in Nevada and New Jersey and relied heavily on existing gaming statutes in midwestern jurisdictions such as Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa. Very fortunately for members of the gaming industry, the key governmental officers and legislators who worked on developing

DB Efforts Help Pass Mississippi Parity Bill

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Government NewsFull AccessDB Efforts Help Pass Mississippi Parity BillChristine LehmannChristine LehmannSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:18 May 2001https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.36.10.0004Mississippi is the 32nd state to enact mental health parity legislation. To ensure the law’s passage, the Mississippi Psychiatric Association (MPA) and its coalition partners worked with key legislators, and Gov. Ronnie Musgrove (D) signed the bill last month.APA President Daniel Borenstein, M.D., said in a press release, “We applaud the Mississippi legislature and Gov. Musgrove for breaking down the barriers for the people of Mississippi from receiving treatment and recovery from mental illness.”APA’s Commission on Public Policy, Litigation, and Advocacy approved funding for MPA’s advocacy efforts last month, subject to approval by the Board of Trustees.APA’s Division of Government Relations held a one-day advocacy training session last year for MPA members and provided resource materials on parity.Sudha Madakasira, M.D.: “We were told by politicians that a parity bill would not pass given the opposition by key legislators.”MPA President Sudha Madakasira, M.D., said in an interview with Psychiatric News, “We were told by politicians that a parity bill would not pass given the opposition by key legislators. We decided not to ask for full parity and met with insurance committee chairs in the House and Senate and the insurance industry. Once we agreed on the provisions, the chairs sponsored the bills and shepherded them through their chambers.”Madakasira estimated that the law, which becomes effective next January, will affect 500,000 individuals in group health insurance plans. The legislation requires employers with more than 100 employees to provide mental health coverage for “clinically significant mental illnesses.” The law doesn’t list or define those illnesses.The mental health coalition also succeeded in not having lifetime caps on mental health benefits included in the bill.Specifically, HB 667 mandates that group health plans provide the following mental health benefits:• A minimum of 30 days of inpatient services annually• A minimum of 60 days of partial hospitalization annually• A minimum of 52 outpatient visits annuallyThe group health plans must cover a minimum of 50 percent of the cost of outpatient visits but are not required to pay more than $50 a visit. Group health plans can opt out of the new requirements if they result in increasing the plans’ costs by more than 1 percent.MPA lobbyist and executive director Angela Ladner told Psychiatric News, “In addition to having a 15-member mental health coalition that included the state psychological, medical, and hospital associations, we had representatives from the state department of health insurance giving us advice.”Ladner said the coalition took the department’s advice to craft a bill based on the mental health benefits in the health insurance plan for state employees. “We decided the state’s benefits were pretty good and that we could argue persuasively that everyone else should have the same benefits as state workers.”Ladner praised Mary Ann Stevens (D), chair of the House Insurance Committee and a previous opponent of parity, with meeting with the mental health coalition and agreeing to sponsor the bill.“Once we had the insurance industry on board, she did everything in her power to ensure the passage of this legislation.”Ladner credited Senators Billy Thems (D) and Robert Huggins (R), as well as Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck (D), who presides over the Senate, with pushing the bill through the Senate.Madakasira added that the law is a good first step toward full parity and that the mental health coalition plans to work toward having its provisions expanded. ▪ ISSUES NewArchived

Presidential Agenda Control and Spending Policy: Lessons from General Pinochet's Constitution

Formal institutions put in place upon the establishment of a new democracy can have profound effects on political bargaining. We demonstrate how the budgetary procedure bequeathed by the outgoing Chilean military regime affects policy choices available to elected officials. Chilean budget procedure should discourage deficits, allow for a reduction in the relative size of the defense budget, and facilitate cuts in executive proposals when the institutional interests of the legislature are at stake but not under conditions of coalitional conflict. We present a simple spatial model of bargaining over spending decisions between the executive and Congress that facilitates comparisons between the Chilean budget procedure and that of other presidential systems. The model suggests that, relative to other regimes, Chile's budget process should constrain spending and favor the president's preferences over the legislature's. Comparative fiscal data from twelve other presidential democracies and from the first eight Chilean budgets since the transition to democracy, as well as interviews with key legislators and executive officials, all support our hypotheses.

State Spaceport Initiatives: Economic and Political Innovation in an Intergovernmental Context

State Spaceport Initiatives: Economic and Political Innovation in an Intergovernmental Context

Beyond Micromanagement: Congressional Budgeting for a Post-Cold War Military

Critics of Congress often attack it for micromanaging the defense budget-that is, for dictating how much to spend on particular weapons and imposing other detailed requirements on the Department of Defense (DOD). Those critics urge Congress to shift its attention toward broader issues of U.S. military strategy, which for budgeting purposes concerns the size and overall characteristics that U.S. forces should have. However, as the old saying goes, beware of what you wish for; you might get it. Since 1990, key legislators have launched a barrage of proposals on defense strategy. This activism highlights the need to rethink how legislators link the details of the defense budget to broader policy concerns, and how the end of the cold war is affecting the mechanisms legislators use to shape defense spending. Members of Congress have long criticized their own tendency to micromanage at the expense of broader policy oversight. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, however, legislators have not only critiqued Bush and Clinton administration proposals to reorient the U.S. military, but have advanced such proposals of their own. Changes in the international system appear to have driven changes in congressional behavior: with the end of the cold war, legislators are no longer satisfied to focus on budgetary details and ignore more fundamental issues. Yet, previous studies have argued that the congressional preference for micromanagement over strategy stemmed from powerful domestic factors, including the incentives for legislators to pack the defense budget with pork for their constituents. 1

Real-World Writing in a Secondary-School Earth-Science Class

While completing a study unit on surface water, a group of 22 high-school freshmen started asking questions about local water degradation and its connection to the regulatory process. They studied new regulations currently being drafted by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and rewrote them in what they considered everyday English. Once the regulations were clearer, the ninth graders contacted politicians and key legislators by mail, wrote a citizen's guide to wetlands protection, prepared personal testimony, and presented that testimony at a state regulatory hearing. Concerned about their credibility with the Board of Environmental Protection, the students found that they needed to have a clear understanding of the scientific information, and needed to write their opinions in a concise and persuasive manner. They learned the necessity of writing multiple drafts, paid more attention to grammatical details, and were unwilling to turn documents over to the Board if the writing was not polished...

Affiliated State Chapter Experience with a Professional Lobbyist for Pharmacy Legislative Activities

The experiences of the New Jersey Society of Hospital Pharmacists (NJSHP) with a professional lobbyist are described. NJSHP hired a part-time lobbyist in 1985 for direct lobbying services, legislative monitoring, and public relations duties. Accomplishments of the lobbyist include reappointment of a hospital pharmacist to the state board of pharmacy, formation of a political action committee, development of a specific political action plan, and creation of position statements. Future goals include sponsoring legislative breakfasts featuring key state legislators and establishing an official state Hospital Pharmacists Day. The experiences of NJSHP with a professional lobbyist have been positive.

Medical schools and the public interest: a conversation with Robert G. Petersdorf. Interview by John K. Iglehart.

Prologue: Amidst the world of turbulent change that marks American medical care, one sphere stands out in its capacity to maintain its traditional ways: medical education. Ironically, its new national spokesman, Robert Petersdorf president of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), has always been an outspoken voice for change in medical education. Petersdorfs expressions, regarded over the years as heretical by some of his academic medical colleagues, have not prevented him from becoming one of this community's most esteemed members. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees. Petersdorf also has enjoyed a varied career in academic medicine as a department chairman (internal medicine, 1964–1979) at the University of Washington's School of Medicine, as a president of a Harvard University teaching hospital (Brigham and Women's, 1979–1981), and as a vice-chancellor and medical school dean at the University of California, San Diego (1981–1986). Petersdorf was appointed president of the AAMC in 1986, replacing John A. D. Cooper. Their leadership styles are quite different. Cooper was an imperious advocate of academic medicine and biomedical research, an attitude that wore thin on Capitol Hill over the years. Petersdorf, on the other hand, has sought to reopen channels long corroded by Cooper's “we know best” attitude. As a consequence, the association's relations with Congress have improved immeasurably in the past eighteen months. For example, two key Democratic legislators—Henry A. Waxman and David Obey—with whom the AAMC had cool relations during Cooper's reign, recently addressed separate meetings of the AAMC's board. Petersdorf travels a lot, devoting greater attention to the views of the AAMC's disparate constituency of medical school deans, teaching hospital chieftains, and academic department chairs. He also is placing a renewed emphasis at the association on encouraging medical schools to strengthen their efforts to enroll minorities.

Contradictory Policies for Foreign Medical Graduates

Research Article Health AffairsVol. 6, No. 3 Contradictory Policies for Foreign Medical GraduatesStephen S. MickPUBLISHED:Fall 1987No Accesshttps://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.6.3.5AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextView PDFPermissions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions View articleAbstractPrologue:By almost any accounting, foreign medical graduates (FMGs) constitute an important part of America's health care system. For the most part, though, serious study of their participation and the drawing of implications should the flow of FMGs be constricted in the future has not taken place. Recent legislation, sponsored by several key legislators, proposed to terminate Medicare support for the graduate training of FMGs. The American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association supported the legislation and the Reagan administration acquiesced to it An alternative and less punitive measure sponsored by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), was enacted. It required that FMGs pass both parts of a demanding test (Foreign Medical Graduate Examination in the Medical Sciences) before hospitals could receive Medicare support for the graduate medical training of such residents. In this article, Stephen Mick questions the assumptions upon which legislators, the medical profession, and other interested parties are basing their attitudes in relation to FMGs. Mick is an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. He holds a doctorate in sociology from Yale University and has been studying foreign medical graduates for fifteen years.TOPICSMedicarePhysiciansMedical educationPhysician workforceMarketsLegislationMedical practiceHospital qualityQuality of carePhysician payment Loading Comments... Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. DetailsExhibitsReferencesRelated Article MetricsCitations: Crossref 8 History Published online 1 January 1987 InformationCopyright © by Project HOPE: The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.PDF downloadCited byDual Autonomies, Divergent Approaches: How Stratification in Medical Education Shapes Approaches to Patient Care21 March 2018 | Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Vol. 59, No. 2“We Wanted To End Disparities at Work”: Physician Migration, Racialization, and a Struggle for EqualityJournal of American Ethnic History, Vol. 29, No. 3The Journey of a Foreign-Trained Physician to a United States Residency: Controversies Surrounding the Impact of This Migration to the United StatesJournal of the American College of Surgeons, Vol. 206, No. 1Immigrant Health Care Providers in the United StatesInternational Medical Graduates in Rural America: The 1987 Distribution of Physicians Who Entered the U.S. Medical System Between 1969 and 1982The Journal of Rural Health, Vol. 12, No. 5Geographical implications of restricting foreign medical immigration: A New Zealand case study, 1976–1987Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 33, No. 4Recruitment and Retention of Rural Physicians: Issues for the 1990sThe Journal of Rural Health, Vol. 6, No. 1Meeting The Medical Needs Of Adults In Public Psychiatric FacilitiesJames C. Hurowitz24 July 2017 | Health Affairs, Vol. 8, No. 2

UNIVERSITY WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH AND STATE LEGISLATURES1

ABSTRACT: Societal trends indicate an increased need for university water researchers to develop and improve working relationships with state legislatures to help ensure that water related legislation is based on sound water resources information. Recommendations for providing technical support to state legislatures on water resources issues include: the necessity for researchers to take the initiative; the importance of researchers capitalizing on existing linkages; the need to maintain a continuous link between key legislators, legislative staff, and researchers; and the need for researchers to provide comprehensible information in a timely manner.

The Clean Air Act Controversy: Congress Confronts the Issues

Reauthorization of the controversial Clean Air Act faces some difficulty in Congress. Although there is general agreement over its basic thrust, some provisions in the Act will receive close scrutiny because of the administration's bias against regulation and pressure from a variety of outside sources for major revisions. Key legislators who actively protected the Act during the 1970s are no longer in Congress, and many of those remaining may have lost power in the political shifts of committee chairmen. Another factor is the mass of accumulated air-quality data that will allow Congress to match performance against the promises of the 1970 act. Economic impacts have also emerged as a major consideration for all legislative proposals. The key issues of controversy will concern the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, the Prevention of Significant Deterioration program, nonattainment areas, mobile sources, pollutants transported long distances, state implementation plans, and uniform standards of performance for major new sources. 26 references, 4 figures, 1 table. (DCK)