On this podcast we talked with Dr. Ronald Petersen, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic and an expert in Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive disorders, and Jennifer Rosen, vice president for state affairs at the Alzheimer’s Association. Joining the podcast to offer the legislative perspective were Senator Laura Murphy of Illinois, a Democrat, and Senator T.J. Shope of Arizona, a Republican. 

Dr Petersen explained the remarkable progress that has been made in recent years in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s and the importance of early intervention. Rosen outlined the enormous financial impact of the disease on society, and the role state legislatures can play in supporting early detection and treatment. 

Senators Shope and Murphy each laid out the legislation enacted in their states and how that legislation will aid both people with the disease and their families. 

Resources

• Alzheimer’s Disease Treatment Clinic, Mayo Clinic
• Alzheimer’s Association
• Comprehensive Policy Approaches to Support the Aging Population, NCSL
• State Policy Approaches to Improving Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care, NCSL
• State Strategies to Reduce Costs and Provide Quality Care for Older Adults and People with Disabilities, NCSL

On this episode, we sat down with two people who pay close attention to the health care market and to how state legislatures are responding to rising costs. Our first guest is Katie Martin is CEO, and president of the Health Care Cost Institute, a nonprofit research group that collects and analyzes data on health care costs in the U.S. Also joining the discussion is Sarah Jaromin, who tracks health care issues for NCSL. 

Martin noted that her organization taps into data from employers who provide insurance to about half the people in the U.S. as well as data from Medicare and Medicaid. She pointed out that as of 2023, health care costs had increased more than 50% since 2014, and the trend does not show any signs of slowing. 

Jaromin sketched out the legislative landscape and explained how legislatures have tried to slow the growing cost of health care. She noted that NCSL has collected data showing that last year, 48 states, along with Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Washington ,D.C., enacted nearly 500 bills related to health care costs and delivery. 

Resources

• “2025 Legislative Landscape: States Tackle Health Costs, Coverage and Delivery,” NCSL
• “Annual Health Care Cost Utilization Report,” HCCI 
• “From Mergers to Market Power: 2025 Legislative Recap on Health Care Consolidation,” NCSL
• “From Prenatal to Postpartum Care, Total Spending on Childbirth Averaged over $25,000 among ESI Enrollees,” HCCI
• Health Care Cost Institute
• “Health Costs, Coverage and Delivery State Legislation,” NCSL
• “Issue Brief: System-affiliated hospitals associated with higher prices,” HCCI
• “Most Office Visit Facility Fee Spending is on Internal Medicine,” HCCI
• Prices in Hospital Outpatient Departments are Consistently Higher than Physician Offices among Site-Neutral Services, HCCI

On this episode of the podcast, we dive into the topic of oversight with three guests who all have different vantage points to observe the process. They include Kade Minchey, auditor general with the Utah Office of the Legislative Auditor General; Holly Trice, registrar of regulations in Virginia and on the staff of the Virginia Joint Commission on Administrative Rules; and Will Clark, who works with NCSL's Center for Legislative Strengthening. 

Will Clark started our discussion with an explanation of some of the basics of oversight, the approaches used, and the tools available to legislators.

Kade Minchey explained how his office in Utah uses performance audits to help agencies improve and how the legislative committee responsible for audits uses the information. 

Holly Trice talked about the rules review process in Virginia, how the legislature and executive branch work together, and how they afford all legislators and the public a chance to weigh in. 

Resources

• The Best Practice Handbook: Root Cause Analysis and Driving Results, Utah Office of the Legislative Auditor General
• The Best Practice Handbook: A Practical Guide to Excellence for Utah Government, Utah Office of the Legislative Auditor General
• A Performance Audit of Utah State Correctional Facility: An Examination of Staffing, Culture, Safety, and Security, Utah Office of the Legislative Auditor General
• A Performance Audit of Utah’s Behavioral Health System: A Case for Governance, Strategic Planning, and Accountability, Utah Office of the Legislative Auditor General
• A Performance Audit of Utah’s Election System and Controls, Utah Office of the Legislative Auditor General
• A Performance Audit of Utah’s Water Management: Ensuring Data Integrity, Program Best Practices, and Comprehensive Water Planning, Utah Office of the Legislative Auditor General
• Separation of Powers: An Overview, NCSL
• Separation of Powers: Legislative Oversight, NCSL
• Virginia Register of Regulations
• Virginia Regulatory Town Hall

Medicaid is the joint state -federal program created in 1965 that provides free or low -cost health care to about 70 million Americans, including low-income elderly people and those living with disabilities. The changes in the 2025 legislation, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill or H.R. 1, affect eligibility standards for the program and changes in the way states can finance their portion of Medicaid costs.

On this episode, we’re joined by two policy experts on Medicaid. Kathryn Costanza is a fellow at NCSL who closely follows Medicaid policy and Neda Jasemi is a senior policy analyst at the National Association of Medicaid Directors. They both sat down to talk about the significant changes in Medicaid that were included in the 2025 Budget Reconciliation Act. 

Jasemi discussed the challenges state legislatures will face as they craft budgets for Medicaid in their states while facing significant uncertainty about both revenue and how many people will be signed up in their state. Costanza explained the ins and outs of provider taxes and how that will affect state revenue intended for Medicaid costs. She also talked about what we know about the new rules and how they will affect the number of people who will qualify for coverage. 

Resources

• How Medicaid Provider Taxes Work: An Explainer, National Association of Medicaid Directors
• Medicaid’s Next Chapter, National Association of Medicaid Directors
• Medicaid Road Ahead: Policy Options and Budget Impacts | Webinar Series, NCSL
• The Medicaid Puzzle: Piecing Together Policies for a Balanced Budget, NCSL 
• Medicaid Road Ahead: Policy Options and Budget Impacts, NCSL 
• Medicaid Toolkit, NCSL
• National Association of Medicaid Directors
• OBBBA Medicaid Policy Timeline, National Association of Medicaid Directors
• Why did they do it that way? Medicaid Financing, National Association of Medicaid Directors
• Medicaid Financing 101, NCSL

On this episode, we discuss data centers and their effect on the energy system with Dan Diorio, vice president for state policy at the Data Center Coalition, a trade group for the data center industry, and Alex McWard, who tracks energy issues, including data centers, for NCSL. 

State lawmakers have long been aware of data centers and some of their impacts, but the focus on data centers has increased considerably in the last couple of years, McWard says. He also discussed changing attitudes toward data centers and concerns about energy consumption and how it could affect rates paid by consumers.

Diorio explained the industry's perspective, pointing out that our society now runs on digital information, whether it's watching a football game or making a credit card purchase, and data centers are the backbone of that system. He also pointed to studies indicating that the industry is pulling its weight in terms of paying for the additional electrical load it's putting on the nation's utilities. 

Resources

• Data Center Coalition
• Policy Snapshot: Data Center Incentives

Storey sees a mixed picture on budgets, with most states sitting on substantial rainy day funds but cautious about the revenue picture in the new year. Issues around Medicaid will loom large because of changes to the program included in H.R. 1, otherwise known as the big, beautiful bill. 

K-12 education, as it always is, will get plenty of attention from legislators who are concerned about a number of issues, including lagging student achievement following the pandemic and the alarming increase in mental health issues among young people. Storey also thinks AI, data centers, housing the workforce as major areas of focus in legislatures. 

And not to be left out is the unprecedented attention to mid-decade redistricting that has taken a lot of attention in a handful of states. 

Resources

• Special Report: Legislative Trends and Priorities for 2026, NCSL

On this episode, our two guests discussed how they used a mentor-mentee relationship to prepare for a job transition. Bernadette “Bernie” McNulty is the retired chief assistant secretary in the California Senate. Heshani Wijemanne is the current chief assistant secretary in the Senate.

McNulty explained that, as a manager, she had a critical responsibility to not only find someone to take on her job but to be sure that person was as ready as possible for the challenges ahead. For her part, Wijemanne said learning and absorbing everything she could from McNulty was irreplaceable in preparing herself. 

Resources

• Legislative Staff, NCSL

Stedron draws on the work of game theorist James Carse and author Simon Sinek, who popularized Carse’s theories. Stedron explained that the legislature, like many other areas of life, is really an infinite game, where the purpose is to perpetuate the game rather than win it. 

However, as Stedron explains, most people, including many of those in the legislature, actually approach their work as a finite game and that misconception can hamper their efforts to be effective leaders.

Resources

• Legislative Training Institute, NCSL

On this podcast, we talk with two experts in the field: Rebekah de la Mora, a senior policy analyst at the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center, and Lakin Garth, senior director of grid strategy at the Smart Electric Power Alliance. 

They discussed state legislation and regulations that affect DERs and the benefits to consumers. Garth also explained how DERs can be aggregated to form virtual power plants that a utility can use to manage peak power demand.

N.B.: The NC Clean Energy Technology Center offers complimentary copies of the 50 State studies to federal and state legislators and staffers, utility commissioners, utility commission staff, state consumer advocate office staff, and state energy office staff. Contact the center to request a copy. 

Resources

• 50 State Reports, NC Clean Energy Technology Center
• Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency, NC Clean Energy Technology Center
• Distributed Energy Resources 101, NCSL
• NC Clean Energy Technology Center
• Smart Energy Power Alliance

She explained how demographic trends mean the lion's share of the workforce growth is among the over-50 crowd, and in a related trend, that more than a fifth of retirees are working full or part-time jobs. Roszkowski also discussed the inherent bias in many automated systems that screen job applicants. The companies she talks with, however, are eager to try to eliminate that bias because they value keeping and attracting older workers. 

Resources 

• Work and Jobs, AARP

At its most basic, private equity investors take over a health care company with the intention of increasing its value and reselling it for a profit. Advantages of such a strategy can be more capital investment and management expertise. Downsides include the use of leveraged buyouts that could saddle the acquired company with high levels of debt. 

On this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Zuri Song, an associate professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an expert on the financial incentives, public policies, and private sector investment in the health care system. Dr. Song explained what research has found in studying private equity acquisitions in health care. On average, he said, these investments raise real concerns about both patient outcomes and access to care.

State legislatures are at the forefront of regulation in this area with much of the regulation focusing on increased transparency into these transactions. I talked with two state legislators to get their perspective: Senator Tyler Johnson, a Republican from Indiana who is also a physician, and Senator Cindy Friedman, a Democrat from Massachusetts. They each discussed the legislative action in their states and how they view private equity investment.

Resources

• The Evolving Landscape of State Health Care Transaction Laws, NCSL 
• Health Costs, Coverage and Delivery Database, NCSL 

On this episode we discussed energy security and energy challenges in Indian Country with Daniel Cardenas Jr., the CEO, president and chairman of the board of the National Tribal Energy Association, and Trent Marlett, energy manager for the utility authority of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Cardenas’ organization represents the four largest energy producing tribes. He noted that access to reasonably priced electricity is the greatest concern for tribal members and said the vast energy resources on tribal lands mean the future of energy is going to include them. Marlett explained how the Choctaw Nation works with their state energy generators to manage new projects and to try to stay up with the growth in the area and how folks in his state view energy security.

Resources

• Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
• National Tribal Energy Association

On this episode, we get the perspective from two people about how to bring those learners back into the system. Terah Crews is the CEO of ReUp Education, an focused on that population. Illinois Representative La Shawn Ford (D), who chairs the Appropriations Higher Education Committee in the Illinois House, has worked on programs to get people to re-enroll in college in his state. 

Crews discussed how ReUp is working with states to cast a wide net, not only for people close to finishing their degrees, but also for people who might need more support and alternative ways of taking classes, such as online courses. She also discussed some of the barriers people face and how states can help them get back on track to finishing their education. Ford explained that getting people back to school to finish a degree is key to upward mobility and legislation in Illinois is aimed at clearing some of the barriers people find to returning to school.

Resources

• NCSL Higher Education Task Force Report.
• Rep. La Shawn K. Ford Website
• ReUp Education

He's the author of several books on legislatures and government, and he joined the podcast to discuss his latest book, “Reforming Legislatures: American Voters and State Ballot Measures 1792- 2020.” The deep dive into about 1,500 ballot measures related to the operations of the legislature that were put to voters over more than 300 years provided Squire with a number of insights.

We discussed how voters view ethics, the qualities they want to see in their lawmakers and the healthy skepticism voters have about legislatures. Squire also explained what he learned about the notion that voters love their own lawmaker but hate the legislature.

Resources

• Pev Squire Bio

Joining the podcast to explain the issue are Sarah Jewett, vice president for strategy at Fervo Energy, and Alex McWard, who tracks energy issues for NCSL. 

Jewett had explained the history of the geothermal industry, how new techniques have changed the outlook for geothermal and the role she thinks this energy sector will play as demand increases sharply for electricity. McWard pointed to a few states that have taken legislative action to encourage geothermal development and why some state lawmakers are excited about the potential of geothermal. 

Resources

• Fervo Energy
• Webinar: “Heating Up: The Emergence of Geothermal Energy,” NCSL

Kate Wolf, a legislative aide in the Nebraska Legislature, and Morgan Hall, a fiscal analyst in the Georgia House budget office talked about surprises early in their careers, what attracted them to legislative service and what they wish they'd known before they started their jobs.

Resources

• Legislative Staff Resources, NCSL

The core thesis of the book is that we've been overprotecting children in the real world and underprotecting them in the online world. The book points to data about Gen Z, the generation born from the mid-’90s to about 2010 showing significant increases in anxiety, depression and suicide. The book goes further and makes the case that it is the combination of the smartphone and social media apps that are the root of the problem.

We recorded this interview on the sidelines of NCSL’s Legislative Summit in Boston where he appeared on a panel with other experts discussing young people, social media and public policy.

Resources

• After Babel Substack
• Social Media and Children, 2025 Legislation, NCSL
• Zach Rausch website

Joining today's show with some some international perspective are Mark Daly, the chair of the Irish Senate, and Ruth Bajada, the deputy chief of mission for the European Union delegation to the U.S. 

On Monday and Tuesday I spoke with current and incoming presidents and staff chairs for NCSL. You can check those out wherever you get your podcasts. 

Resources

• Celebrating 50 years of NCSL
• NCSL's Legislative Summit

Today's guests are Illinois Rep. Marcus Evans Jr., the incoming president of NCSL, and Lonnie Edgar, deputy director for Mississippi’s Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review and the incoming NCSL staff chair. They will both assume their new positions on Wednesday at the NCSL Business Meeting.

Resources

• Celebrating 50 years of NCSL
• NCSL's Legislative Summit

We're positing podcasts Aug. 4, 5 and 6 with some voices from the Summit. Today our guests are  Utah Sen. Wayne Harper, the president of NCSL,  and John Snyder, the Transportation Committee staff administrator for the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission and the NCSL staff chair. 

Tomorrow, joining us will be Illinois Rep. Marcus Evans Jr., the incoming president of NCSL, and Lonnie Edgar, deputy director for Mississippi’s Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review and the incoming NCSL staff chair.

And on Wednesday, we'll sit down with two international visitors to get their perspective on the Summit and why working with state lawmakers is important for their nations.

Resources

• Celebrating 50 years of NCSL
• NCSL's Legislative Summit

On this episode, the focus is on legislators. Along with Senator Lee, two other lawmakers offer their perspective on the role of state legislator. Also joining the discussion are Tim Storey, the CEO of NCSL, two political scientists with deep knowledge of state legislatures and an NCSL researcher with results of the latest survey of legislators. 

Earlier episodes charted the history of legislatures in the U.S., how the institution of the legislature evolved and the critical role of legislative staff. 

Resources

• NCSL Marks 50th Anniversary of Strengthening States

Several states have enacted legislation allowing portable benefits to be set up in their state. Other states have created programs that offer automatic enrollment for employees without access to an employer-sponsored plan. All those efforts are aimed at expanding the ways people save for retirement and other needs. 

On this episode to discuss the issue are John Scott, director of the Retirement Savings Project at Pew, Kristen Sharp of the Flex Association and Karen Kavanaugh, who's working with Tufts University on the Working While Caring Initiative.

All three talked about how the worker benefits system can better serve people in the changing economy and provide them with greater financial security.

Scott laid out the scale of the challenge to improve financial security for Americans and Sharp discussed how portable benefits can help the people her group serves, the millions of people whose work is app-based and need a better system to receive benefits. Kavanaugh is focused on how benefits employers provide can be better shaped to help the tens of millions of people in this country with caregiving responsibilities. She's overseeing a pilot project that's exploring how smaller employers can build in the flexibility needed by many caregivers. 

Resources

• Portable Benefits for Independent Contractors: A Framework for State Policymaking, NCSL
• States, Employers Weigh Portable Benefits for Independent Workers, NCSL
• Workers Without Access to Retirement Benefits Struggle to Build Wealth, Pew

Animal-vehicle collisions result in about 200 human deaths and 26,000 injuries each year.

Joining the podcast to discuss the issue are Matt Skroch, director of Pew’s U.S. Conservation Project for the western U.S. and Alaska; Senator Mimi Stewart, a Democrat from New Mexico; and Rep. Katie Zolnikov, a Republican from Montana. 

Skroch explained the dimensions of the problem and why a nation with about 4 million miles of roadway has a significant challenge with vehicle-animal collisions. He also noted that states are studying and acting on the issue. 

In fact, nine states have enacted legislation related to wildlife crossings since 2020. I asked Senator Stewart and Representative Zolnikov, both of whom sponsored legislation on wildlife crossings in their states, to explain how state lawmakers are tackling the issue.

Stewart discussed the extensive planning that was done in New Mexico and how the fund received $50 million for this legislative year, the largest single amount appropriated for crossings in any state in a single year.

Zolnikov explained that Montana is No. 2 in vehicle-animal collisions in the country on a per capita basis and how the state is building up its fund to pay for crossings.

Resources

• Pew U.S. Conservation Project

On this episode, we focus on those challenges and how utilities in rural parts of the country are coping. Our guests are John Ransom, director of regulatory affairs for grid security for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, and Adrienne Lotto, senior vice president for grid security at the American Public Power Association. 

John and Adrienne discussed some of those unique challenges, how they work with state regulators and how something like high turnover in state energy offices can complicate their efforts. 

Resources

• American Public Power Association
• National Rural Electric Cooperative Association

On this episode, we spoke with three people who are involved in efforts to reform the process used to determine a defendant's mental competency: Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush and two Colorado legislators, Senator Judy Amabile, a Democrat, and Senator Byron Pelton, a Republican.

Chief Justice Rush explained the dimensions of the problem and discussed how a national task force on the issue developed. Policy recommendations. Senator Amabile, who has sponsored legislation on the issue talked about how Colorado ended up with a significant backlog of cases. Senator Pelton explained some of the unique challenges people in rural America face when dealing with behavioral health issues. 

Resources

• “Legislative Primer Series on Front-End Justice: Competency to Stand Trial,” NCSL
• “Juvenile Justice: States with Juvenile Competency Laws,” NCSL

Data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, indicates that for more than two decades half the people in need of behavioral health services in the U.S. did not receive them. 

Joining the discussion are Karmen Hanson, a senior fellow at NCSL; Brianna Lombardi, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Jeff Shumway, the director of Utah’s Office of Professional Licensure Review.

Lombardi discussed her experiences in researching the workforce shortage and explained some its complexities. Shumway gave a state-level perspective on how regulation can affect the workforce. Hanson broke down the efforts in legislatures to address the workforce issues.

Resources

• Allied Health Professions: Considerations for State Legislatures, NCSL
• Health Workforce Legislation Database, NCSL
• Health Care Workforce Resources, NCSL
• Scope of Practice Policy Database, NCSL

While biologics make up only about 2% of prescriptions, they account for as much as 46% of total drug spending in the U.S.

The three guests on this podcast all have expertise on different aspects of this topic and discuss the use of biosimilar medicines in health care and the possible cost savings when they are used in place of originator biologic medications. 

Luca Maini is an economist who studies the pharmaceutical industry and is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Chad Pettit is executive director of global government affairs for Amgen, a biotechnology company. Erin Glossop is a policy specialist at NCSL who follows state policies around pharmaceuticals.

Maini discussed his research into how the introduction of biosimilars into a market affects the price of brand-name biologics. Pettit explained the perspective from the biotechnology industry and how he thinks the industry will develop in the next several years. Glossop explained how some states are developing bipartisan policy around biosimilar access and efforts to find cost-savings these products might offer. 

Resources

• Amgen Biosimilars
• Assessing the Biosimilar Void in the U.S., IQVIA
• Biosimilars in the United States 2023-2027, IQVIA
• Biosimilar Uptake In The US: Patient And Prescriber Factors, Dongzhe Hong, et al.
• Coverage for Biosimilars vs Reference Products Among US Commercial Health Plans, James D. Chambers, et al.
• Exploring the Influence of Health Insurance Plans on Biosimilar Adoption Rates, Mariana Socal, et al.
• Factors Associated with Biosimilar Exclusions and Step Therapy Restrictions Among US Commercial Health Plans, Tianzhou Yu, et al.
• Luca Maini website

Dr. Sunita Sah, a professor at Cornell and an organizational psychologist, is the author of “Defy: The Power of No in a World that Demands Yes,” published earlier this year.

Sah’s book explores why people say yes and go along at work and in other relationships in their lives, even when they want to say no. In this conversation, she explains how most people are conditioned to see defiance as a negative trait. Instead, she argues, defiance based on deeply held values can be a positive.

She discusses how to evaluate a situation where you may want to defy, how we need to train ourselves to see defiance in a different light and why it is so difficult to make that transition. Sah also addressed defiance in the legislative workplace and the complications that can arise in a complex hierarchy. 

Sah also explained that while defying is not risk free, going along when you know you should object carries its own hazards.

Sah will conduct a webinar on May 5 at noon MT as part of this year’s NCSL Legislative Staff Week. 

Resources

• Dr. Sunita Sah’s website

Our first guest on this podcast is Ian Hedges, the director of Medicaid and Medicare program policy for the American Dental Association. Hedges explained how oral health care affects overall health and why different levels of coverage for adults under Medicaid can lead to higher costs later on for health complications that arise from neglected oral health issues. One study found that untreated oral health conditions can lead to health complications that cost the U.S. about $45 billion each year in lost productivity.

Our other guests are Sen. Evan Vickers, a Republican of Utah, and Sen. Malcom Augustine, a Democrat from Maryland. Senators Vickers and Augustine explained how their states have approached broadening coverage for adults covered by Medicaid, the challenge in assembling a group of providers that will accept Medicaid reimbursement and some of the particular problems in providing care to those with low incomes and those living in rural areas.

Resources

• Medicaid Adult Dental Benefits Are on the Move in 2024, CareQuest
• Variation in Use of Dental Services by Children and Adults Enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP, KFF

While legislative staff outnumber legislators by more than 4 to 1, their role is often poorly understood by the public and even by their own families.  Yet the work they do from drafting legislation to providing bill research to keeping the IT systems running is critical to these institutions. 

We talked to a variety of staffers and others who reflected on the growth of staff, their critical role in providing nonpartisan professional advice to legislators, the changing role and challenges staff have faced especially in the last 50 years and what the future holds for them.

Resources

• Legislative Staff, NCSL
• NCSL Marks 50th Anniversary of Strengthening States, NCSL

“Helping America Vote: Election Administration in the United States” was the focus of this podcast and features a discussion with Commissioners Ben Hovland and Donald Palmer.

The EAC was established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which was Congress’ response to the problems with the 2000 election. The commission’s goals include adopting voluntary voting system guidelines, serving as a national clearinghouse for election administration and certifying voting systems. The commissioners are bipartisan. Hovland, chairman until earlier this year, is a Democrat, and Palmer, the current chairman, is a Republican. 

The commissioners discussed a variety of topics related to elections including the pros and cons of our decentralized voting system, the importance of election administration as a profession, the value of a bipartisan approach to election administration and who they hope will read this book. 

Resources

• Elections and Campaigns Program, NCSL
• "Helping America Vote: Elections Administration in the United States"
• U.S. Election Assistance Commission

On this episode we discussed the nuts and bolts of how Medicaid is financed and how states are handling some new challenges in the post-pandemic world. The pandemic affected both who Medicaid covered and the share paid by the federal and state governments.  

In the first segment, NCSL’s Kathryn Costanza was joined by Akeiisa Coleman from the Commonwealth Fund to break down the details of how the program is funded, including how the federal-state share is determined for each state. They also discussed the key drivers of cost in the Medicaid system. 

On the second segment, guests Neda Jasemi from the National Association of Medicaid Directors, and Robin Rudowitz from KFF talk about what they are hearing from Medicaid officials around the country. They discussed how the post-COVID unwinding of patients who had remained on the rolls during the pandemic had significant effects on the program. They also discussed steps states are taking to try to ensure access for Medicaid patients and how states are preparing for any changes in the program at the federal level. 

Resources

• Commonwealth Fund/Medicaid
• Health Costs, Coverage and Delivery State Legislation Database, NCSL
• How We Pay for Medicaid
• KFF/Medicaid
• “Medicaid Financing 101,” NCSL
• “Medicaid Toolkit,” NCSL
• National Association of Medicaid Directors
• “Results from an Annual Medicaid Budget Survey for State Fiscal Years 2024 and 2025,” KFF
• “State Legislatures Address Medicaid Coverage and Payments in the 2024 Legislative Session,” NCSL
• “State Tax Actions: 2024,” NCSL
• “Top five Medicaid budget pressures for fiscal year 2025,” NAMD

Senator Dafna Michaelson Jenet, a Democrat of Colorado and the current president of the WLN, and Representative DeAnn Vaught, a Republican of Arkansas and the incoming president of the group, joined the podcast to discuss the anniversary and women in legislatures more generally.

They discussed how they decided to run for the legislature, the obstacles they faced and the perspective female legislators bring to the job. They also shared their passion for encouraging other women to run for office. 

Resources

• Women’s Legislative Network of NCSL

Stewart joined the podcast to offer a preview of the 2024 report, that includes questions about whether voters cast their ballots by mail or in person, how confident they were in the election results and other matters.

Stewart, who is also the head of the head of the MIT Election Data + Science Lab, said some people might be surprised to learn that most voters are both satisfied with the voting experience and have confidence in the results.

Resources

• MIT Election Data + Science Lab

While the November election did not bring big changes for state legislatures—there was minimal turnover at both the legislative and executive levels—the big change in the federal government may mean significant changes in the state-federal relationship.

State budgets, which determine much of what states can do in the new year, are stable in most states and rainy day funds generally are in good shape, Storey said. But revenues are not on the rise and, as is true at the federal level, that means less willingness by legislatures to fund new programs.

A trend of rising health care costs will also affect states through their Medicaid programs and likely result in a strong focus on controlling costs. Storey also discussed other key areas of policy, including K-12 education, social media and kids and AI. One wild card for states is immigration and how they will respond if the new administration follows through on aggressive plans for deporting people in the country without documents. 

Resources

• Special Report: A Look at 2025’s Trending Legislative Topics, NCSL

On this podcast, we spoke with Jake Kincer, a program manager at Clear Path, a center-right think tank focused on accelerating efforts to reduce global energy emissions, and with Rowen Price, a policy adviser on nuclear energy at Third Way, a center-left oriented think tank focused on a range of public policy issues.

Kincer and Price discussed how nuclear energy policy may or may not change in the transition from the Biden to the Trump administration. They explained the role nuclear energy will likely play in the coming decades as energy use soars with the added demand of data centers, AI, new industrial facilities and the electrification of the transportation fleet. They also talked about the state role, the challenge of nuclear waste, and the increasing role of private companies contracting with nuclear power providers to guarantee energy for new developments.

Resources

• Clear Path
• Nuclear Energy Institute
• Nuclear Power and Clean Energy Transition, NCSL
• Third Way

Sen. Karen Keiser (D) from Washington state and Rep. Walker Thomas (R) from Kentucky shared some of their experiences as new lawmakers and advice on working with the media, responding to constituents and speaking on the floor. 

Keiser, who is retiring at the end of this term, is the president pro tem of the Washington Senate and is the author of “Getting Elected Is the Easy Part: Working and Winning in the State Legislature.” She started her career in the Washington House in 1995.

Thomas has served in the Kentucky House since 2017. He is the chair of Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection Committee.

Resources

• Getting Elected Is the Easy Part: Working and Winning in the State Legislature
• New Member Virtual Orientation, NCSL
• New State Legislators, NCSL

In the past few years, legislators concerned about this trend have asked utilities to provide disaster mitigation plans. In Washington state last year, bipartisan legislation was enacted that requires utilities to provide wildfire mitigation plans for legislators to review. 

Rep. Kristine Reeves (D) of Washington state joined the podcast to discuss the origin of the legislation in her state and why it's important for legislators to review and understand the steps utilities are taking to reduce the risk of wildfires, particularly in Western states. 

Also joining the podcast was Anne Sherwood, area vice president for wildfire mitigation for Xcel Energy, a utility that operates in eight states. She explained how utilities are using wildfire mitigation plans to try to prevent wildfires and also to better manage the effect on utilities when fires do start. 

To better understand these challenges, NCSL formed a Task Force on Higher Education Affordability and Student Outcomes in 2022. The group has now issued its report. The co-chairs of the task force – Senators Ann Millner (R) of Utah and Michael Dembrow (D) of Oregon – talked with us about what they discovered. Also on the show is Austin Reid of NCSL, a federal affairs adviser in the Washington D.C., office, who worked with the task force.

Reid explained the genesis of the task force and the importance of trying to better coordinate the efforts of state government, the federal government and institutions of higher education.

Dembrow and Millner explained how the bipartisan group of legislators on the task force came to understand the importance of a degree of value. The also expressed hope that the task force’s work will lead to greater coordination between state and federal officials.

Resources

• Task Force on Higher Education Report
• Task Force Report: Enhancing the Value of Higher Ed Degrees, NCSL

Ben Williams, NCSL’s associate director of Elections and Redistricting, discussed the 5,508 legislative seats on ballots in 44 states, more than 78% of all legislative seats nationwide. He also explained how the outcomes could affect legislative control in the states, overall state control and veto-proof majorities in some states. 

Helen Brewer with NCSL explained the range of topics covered by the more than 150 statewide ballot measures voters will decide. She discussed the large number of abortion-related measures and others uses such election administration, taxes, criminal justice and education. 

Resources

• NCSL State Elections 2024

Guests include historian Pev Squire, who sketches out how legislatures developed both from the colonial assemblies and from the territorial legislatures. We also spoke with three people who have spent considerable time in legislatures and given a great deal of thought to the institution itself— Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie and Raul Burciaga, who recently retired as director of the New Mexico Legislative Council Service. They reflected on where the institution is now and the challenges it will face in the next 50 years. 

Resources

• NCSL Marks 50 Years of Service to State Legislatures, NCSL

In 2024, NCSL is tracking more than 400 pieces of legislation related to AI. This year at least 45 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C., introduced AI bills, and 31 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands adopted resolutions or enacted legislation.

Our three guests on this episode offer a look at AI’s legislative impact. Chelsea Canada from NCSL, who tracks state legislation around the country related to AI, is one of our guests and she explained the breadth of the legislation proposed in the states and also noted a trend in some states toward comprehensive AI laws focused on consumer protection.

Our other guests are Sen. Shelley Hughes (R) of Alaska, who worked this year to move a comprehensive bill through the legislature but was unsuccessful. She explained her bill and her hopes for its passage in the next session. 

Our third guest is Colorado Rep. Manny Rutinel (D). He was one of the House sponsors of a successful bill focused on consumer protection and trying to remove discriminatory results from the use of AI. 

Resources

• Artificial Intelligence 2024 Legislation
• Artificial Intelligence 2023 Legislation
• Artificial Intelligence 2019-2022
• Volume of AI Bills Rises, Even as Use of Systems Evolves

On this episode, we get perspectives from three people involved in the debate: Kristen Niakan, a pharmacy management consultant with the actuarial and consulting firm Milliman; North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell (R); and Colorado Senator Dafna Michaelson Jenet (D).

Niakan explained the background of these drugs, who's using them, the costs involved, and the insurance coverage landscape across the country. Folwell walked through the decision in his state not to cover GLP one drugs for the state's employee health plan, and also discussed a separate decision in his state to extend coverage of the drugs to Medicaid recipients. Michaelson Jenet discussed her efforts to pass legislation that would've required all private insurance companies and the state Medicaid program in Colorado to provide coverage for the treatment of the chronic disease of obesity and the treatment of pre-diabetes, including FDA approved anti-obesity medication. 

Resources

• Diabetes State Mandates and Insulin Copayment Caps, NCSL
• Employers feel the side effects of drugmaker control over Wegovy, Ozempic costs, Politico
• GLP-1 agonists in Medicaid: Utilization, growth, and management, Milliman
• Impact of anti-obesity medication coverage in the Medicaid and commercial markets
• KFF Health Tracking Poll May 2024: The Public’s Use and Views of GLP-1 Drugs, KFF

The vast majority of states, however, do require at least one course in civics and every state has some form of civics education. On this podcast, guest Tammy Wehrle, the legislative education and outreach officer in the Wisconsin State Legislature, talked about what she’s learned about the state of civics education.

Wehrle, who was a classroom educator and holds a doctorate, oversees a variety of programs in the legislature that can involve kids as young as 12. She thinks there is real value in young people seeing the legislature from the inside and understanding the range of roles necessary to run the legislature.

Resources

• Civics Education at NCSL
• Senate Scholar Program, Wisconsin State Legislature
• Staff Snapshots | Tammy Wehrle, NCSL

Our guests include political scientist Don Kettl; former NCSL staffer Karl Kurtz; Sabrina Lewellen, assistant secretary of the Arkansas Senate and current staff chair at NCSL; Bill Pound, longtime NCSL executive director; historian Pev Squire, former NCSL staffer Brian Weberg; and Natalie Wood, NCSL’s vice president of policy and research.

We sat down with two experts on data centers to find out what’s coming in the next several years. Our guests are David Porter, vice president of electrification and sustainable energy strategy at the Electric Power Research Institute or EPRI, and Mukul Anand, global director at Johnson Controls dealing with data center cooling and energy management.

Porter explained the range of energy demand scenarios and the very significant demand that will be put on both the generation and transmission of power in the next several years. Anand discussed the work he does to help data centers explore alternative energy sources and find innovative ways to dissipate the extraordinary amount of heat generated by the racks of servers in the centers. He also expects a tremendous increase in power demand and suggests more planning may be needed to be ready. 

Resources

• Powering Intelligence: Analyzing Artificial Intelligence and Data Center Energy Consumption, EPRI

We sat down with Jill Reinmuth, staff director for the Office of Program Research in the Washington House; Eric Nauman, principal fiscal analyst for the Minnesota Senate; and Sabrina Lewellen, assistant Secretary of the Arkansas Senate and the current NCSL staff chair. 

The three legislative staff leaders discussed how procedures changed in the aftermath of the pandemic, what they learned personally about leadership and how their staff performed under the extraordinary challenges of the health emergency. 

Resources

• Lessons Learned: Legislative Staff and the Pandemic, NCSL's OAS podcast
• Dr. Melissa Furman on the Pandemic and the Workplace, NCSL's OAS podcast

The focus of this podcast is the nexus of housing and transportation, and particularly transit-oriented development. We sat down with Cameron Rifkin, a policy expert at NCSL who tracks housing legislation, and Doug Shinkle, who heads NCSL’s transportation program, to discuss housing, transportation and the efforts by state legislators to take on challenges in both those areas. 

They discussed the types of legislation passed, how some states have passed legislation directly addressing transit-oriented development and why parking requirements for housing developments are sparking conflict.

Resources

• Characteristics of Middle Housing, Missing Middle Housing
• Economic Mobility Enacted Legislation Database, NCSL
• Expanding Affordable Housing Opportunities: Zoning and Land Use Case Studies, Bipartisan Policy Center
• Housing and Homelessness Legislation Database, NCSL
• “Housing and Homelessness Toolkit,” NCSL
• “Increasing the Housing Supply by Reducing Costs and Barriers,” NCSL
• “Middle Housing: Filling a Gap in Available Housing Options,” NCSL
• A Series of Policy Briefs on Zoning, Land Use, and a Solution to the Nation’s Housing Shortage, American Enterprise Institute
• Transit-Oriented Development, Federal Transit Administration

To explore the issue, we sat down with Brian Bridges, the secretary of higher education in New Jersey, to discuss legislation passed in that state. A 2021 bill established new requirements for academic programs including sufficient academic quality, evidence of labor market demand, lack of duplication, and requirements for additional state resources. Another bill in 2022 created performance quality standards for career-oriented programs and required the higher education secretary to develop minimum standards for state programs. 

Also on the program is Andrew Smalley, a higher education policy expert at NCSL, who discussed the trend in state legislation and what the statistics tell us about the value of higher education.

Resources

• Postsecondary Bill Tracking Database, NCSL
• “Nondegree Credential Framework,” NCSL

She's the guest on the podcast, the second in a series focused on legislative staff, the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it changed the workplace. She addressed the persistent problem of burnout in the workplace, how leadership was critical to success during the pandemic, and some lessons to take away from the emergency. 

Resources

• Career Potential

Joining the podcast are Eve Hill, one of the nation’s top disability rights lawyers and the policy and legislative counsel for the U.S. Department of Labor’s State Exchange on Employment & Disability or SEED, and Nevada Assemblywoman Tracy Brown-May, who has worked on numerous initiatives to aid those with disabilities. Both joined the podcast to discuss the current state of the ADA.

Hill explained how interpretation of the law has changed since the early ’90s when she started her law career, how it has been further altered by legislation and the substantial role state legislators can take in their states around the issue. Note that’s Hill’s personal observations do not represent those of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Brown-May explained how her background working with people with disabilities has informed her legislative efforts and her experience with fellow lawmakers who come to her for advice on how to address a disability-related issue in legislation.

Resources

• Assemblywoman Tract Brown-May, Nevada Legislature
• Eve Hill, Brown, Goldstein and Levy
• State Exchange on Employment & Disability, U.S. Department of Labor

Our guests include Sabrina Lewellen, assistant secretary of the Arkansas Senate and the current NCSL staff chair; Anne Sappenfield, director of the Wisconsin Legislative Council; and Jay Hartz, director of the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. All three joined to talk about the long-term effects of the pandemic and how their institutions coped with the emergency.

They talked about how their institutions were affected, some of the innovations staff devised to cope with the emergency and some of the lasting changes resulting from the pandemic. There was even discussion of how a stack of table, a laptop and a camera helped ensure transparent government.

RESOURCES

• Legislative Staff homepage, NCSL

Indiana and Maryland have been leaders in the field and on this podcast, we sat down with two legislators intimately involved in the issue--Rep. Bob Behning (R-Ind.) and Sen. Malcolm Augustine (D-Md.)

Behning said participation in an NCSL study group helped inform legislation he has pursued to ensure more options for youth employment and to destigmatize technical education. Augustine explained the approach Maryland has taken to youth employment and the role of the Maryland Apprenticeship 2030 Commission in shaping future efforts.

Resources

• Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, Maryland Public Schools
• Nondegree Credential State Policy Framework, NCSL
• Office of Work-Based Learning and Apprenticeship, State of Indiana
• Strategies for Youth Employment, NCSL

But what exactly does getting the budget ready entail? To discuss that, we sat down with Krista Lee Carsner, the executive director of the Fiscal Review Committee for the Tennessee General Assembly and the president of the National Association of Legislative Fiscal Offices. 

She explained the importance of accurate revenue forecasts, how the budget hearing process works on both the executive and legislative sides of state government and how individual legislators can get a say in the budget process. 

Our second guest on this podcast was Erica MacKellar, a fiscal policy expert with NCSL. She broke down the fiscal condition of the states, how they're coping in the post pandemic period and how revenue projections are very much on the mind of those crafting state budgets. 

Resources

• FY 2025 State Budget Status, NCSL
• VIDEO: State Budgets and Taxes, NCSL

In recent years, critics have argued that fines and fees used to fund the judiciary create a perverse incentive for judges to impose more fees. Another target for critics are jurisdictions that use criminal justice fees as revenue generators. For those with few resources, fines and fees stemming from traffic tickets and criminal convictions can perpetuate a cycle of poverty.

A significant state legislative trend has been to limit the number and amount of fines and fees in the justice system or abolish them altogether. 

Our two guests on this episode both sponsored successful legislation in their states to abolish fees and fines for juveniles. Rep. Sean Lynn, a Democrat from Delaware, and Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe, a Republican from Montana, talked about why they got involved in this policy area and the changes they want to see in their states. 

Resources

• NCSL’s Criminal Records and Reentry Toolkit
• Assessing Fines and Fees in the Criminal Justice System
• Policymakers Weigh Pros and Cons of Court Fines and Fees
• Road to Reform: State Approaches to Addressing Debt-Based Driver’s License Suspensions

State legislatures have been active in passing legislation to address the crisis and enacting more than 180 bills in 2022 and 2023, most of them focusing on harm reduction strategies such as medication-assisted treatment. However, the number of deaths remain stubbornly high.

On this podcast, we sat down with Michelle Putnam from the Division of Overdose Prevention at the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Charlie Severance-Medaris, who tracks state policy related to drug overdose prevention for NCSL.

Putnam discussed the steps her office is taking to understand the patterns of drug use and overdoses and working with local public health departments to better equip them to deal with the situation. She also talked about the frustration faced by state and local officials, families, law enforcement, and others at the ongoing death toll despite decades of efforts to control illegal drugs.

Severance-Medaris discussed the trends in legislation aimed at addressing the drug overdose problem and whether states may change their approach. 

Resources

• Injury Prevention Database
• State Options to Increase Access to MAT
• SUD Tx Database
• Nonfatal Overdose Dashboards, Drug Overdose, CDC Injury Center
• Overdose Data to Action: Funded Jurisdictions, Drug Overdose, CDC Injury Center
• Stop Overdose, CDC
• SUDORS Dashboard: Fatal Overdose Data, Drug Overdose, CDC Injury Center

To better understand this critical part of the electrical infrastructure, we sat down with Melissa Birchard, a senior adviser in the Grid Deployment Office of the U.S. Department of Energy. The office was created in 2022 to work on a variety of issues related to the electrical grid and, in particular, integrating power from new renewable energy projects.

Melissa talked about some of the issues involved particularly in the planning and siting of transmission lines. She explained the need for new transmission lines to bring renewable energy from remote areas of the country to the cities and towns where it’s needed. 

Our other guest is Alex McWard from NCSL, who tracks legislation related to the state role in transmission line planning and siting. He discussed the role of state legislatures in transmission projects and in working with other states on regional projects.

Resources

• Coordinated Interagency Transmission Authorizations and Permits Program, U.S. Department of Energy
• Electric Transmission Planning: A Primer for State Legislatures, NCSL
• Engagement Between States and Regional Transmission Organizations, National Council on Electric Policy
• Grid and Transmission Program Conductor, U.S. Department of Energy
• Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program, U.S. Department of Energy
• National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor Designation Process, U.S. Department of Energy
• Transmission Facilitation Program First Round Selections, U.S. Department of Energy

Kettl, who is the author of more than two dozen books and also writes a monthly column for Governing, joined the podcast to discuss the current state of power sharing between the state and federal governments. He explained why he thinks states increasingly are the center of domestic policymaking, talked about the power relationship between legislatures and governors, and how he expects the balance of federalism to shift in the coming decades. 

The guests for this podcast are Ethan Pollack , a senior director at Jobs for the Future, a national nonprofit aimed at expanding economic opportunity, and Andrew Smalley, an education policy expert at NCSL.

Pollack discussed a number of innovative financing strategies involving philanthropic organizations, employers, government and financial institutions that offer the promise of helping students pay for their education at a lower cost. And in some instances that better scale the cost to the potential earnings of the graduate.

Smalley explained the steps states are taking to help facilitate these innovative approaches and also broke down what most students and families pay for post-secondary education. 

Resources

• Jobs for the Future
• “How Can Innovative Finance Transform Our Postsecondary Education and Training Systems?,” Jobs for the Future

Storey said most state budgets will start the year in excellent shape, though legislators will continue to cast a cautious eye on economic conditions. He also pointed out that it’s important to keep in mind that 2024 is an election year and that tends to influence what happens in legislatures, including what is often a somewhat less active legislative agenda than you usually see in the first half of a two-year session. 

Storey expects concerns about technology, especially artificial intelligence, to be high on the priority list. Housing challenges and the fentanyl overdose crisis are also likely to get a great deal of attention in most legislatures. At least some legislatures also are likely to look at legislation affecting migrants, especially in light of inaction at the federal level. And, of course, education and health care, two big budget items for states, also will get considerable attention.

Resources

• Special Report: A Look at 2024’s Trending Legislative Topics

The 2024 primaries are right around the corner so on this podcast, we sat down with Ben Williams, an elections expert at NCSL, to talk about the different types of primaries and why primaries are so important. Williams explained the different approaches states take to the primary system and some of the election history that brought us to this system we now use. He also discussed NCSL’s recent publication, “The State’s Primary Toolkit,” that includes extensive background information on primaries’ changes in states since 2000 and a great deal more.

Resources

• State Primaries Toolkit

On this episode, we explore the tax ramifications for states of remote work. We’re joined by Charlie Kearns, a tax attorney, and James Privette, until recently a legislative specialist in NCSL’s Washington, D.C., office.

They discussed how remote work affects personal income taxes and business taxes, and how states are responding to the changing landscape. They also had suggestions for learning more about the issue. 

Resources

• Remote Work Revolution: How Can Remote Work Taxation Affect State Budgets, NCSL Webinar
• State And Local Tax Considerations of Remote Work Arrangements, NCSL

We sat down with two experts on the subject -- Dia Gainor, executive director of National Association of State EMS Officials, and Davis Patterson, director of the WWAMI Rural Health Research Center at University of Washington—to discuss that and other challenges to EMS in rural areas. Other issues they discussed included the severe workforce challenges in staffing rural EMS services, the role of legislatures in addressing rural EMS needs and the promise of community paramedicine in addressing both emergency and nonemergency care in rural areas.

RESOURCES

• Ambulance Deserts: Addressing Geographic Disparities in the Provision of Ambulance Services, Rural Health Research Gateway (May 2023)
• Beyond 911: Expanding the Primary Care Role of First Responders through Community Paramedicine
• Community Paramedicine: Connecting Patients to Care and Reducing Costs
• EMS Legislative Database
• The EMS and Community Paramedic Workforces Respond to COVID-19, WWAMI Rural Health Research Center (June 2023)
• The National Association of State Emergency Medical Services Officials
• State Actions To Address EMS Workforce Shortages
• You might need an ambulance, but your state may not see it as ‘essential,’ Stateline (September 2023)
• WWAMI Rural Health Research Center

Our guest on this episode is Alyssa Vangeli, a senior consultant with Bailit Health, a consulting firm in Massachusetts where she works with states to provide health policy analysis and consulting around the commercial health market. Vangeli explained what's driving the increase in costs, which segments of the health care economy are seeing the greatest cost increases, and the efforts by the federal and state governments to better understand the cost drivers and try to contain them. She also offered examples of what different states are doing and the success of those efforts.

Resources

• 2023 Health Costs Seminar, NCSL
• Bailit Health
• Health Costs, Coverage, and Deliver State Legislation, NCSL
• Health Policy Snapshot: Addressing Commercial Health Care Prices, NCSL
• State Actions to Control Commercial Health Care Costs, NCSL
•  

Mehlman has a savvy, insider’s take on how Washington works and sees the day’s events with a historical perspective that is often missing from our political analysis. 

Mehlman and Storey talked about the forces shaping our political world, the turn to populism in recent years in numerous countries the challenge that poses to our institutions. They also talked about Mehlman’s slide decks, that over the years have become well-known among policy types for their clear, data-driven, often humorous analysis of political, economic and social trends. 

Resources

• Bruce Mehlman’s PowerPoint Decks
• Mehlman Consulting

On this podcast, we sat down with Dr. Roni Rosenfeld, a computer scientist and a leader in the field of disease forecasting. Rosenfeld leads the machine learning department at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and also works with Carnegie Mellon’s Delphi Research Group, which is one of several organizations that are part of the newly developed Outbreak Analytics and Disease Modeling Network established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Rosenfeld explained that, over more than a decade, researchers working on disease forecasting have taken weather forecasting as their model in creating usable tools to better understand the path of infectious diseases. He explained the type of data disease forecasters use – everything from hospital records to Google searches—to develop their forecasts and how that information can help those in health care. He also discussed why it’s important for legislators and others in state government to understand how to use and interpret disease forecasting.

Resources

• Machine Learning Department, Carnegie Mellon University

On the podcast to discuss the situation are Lynn Constantini, a cybersecurity expert with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, and Patrick Miller, CEO and owner of Ampere Industrial Security who brings more than 35 years of experience in the security field to the discussion. 

While the federal government has some regulatory authority over utilities, state legislatures have a key role in this area through their oversight of public utility commissions. Since the start of 2021, states introduced nearly 500 bills and passed 99 measures related to energy security as of August 2022.

Constantini and Miller discussed the rise in threats and attacks, the type of attacks that are most common and the difference between attacks on information technology, or IT, and operational technology, or OT. They also discussed the steps states already have taken to counter cyberattacks.

Resources

• 2021-2022 Energy Security State Legislative Review: Cybersecurity and Physical Security, NCSL
• Ampere Industrial Security
• Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response, U.S. Department of Energy
• National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners
• North American Electric Reliability Corporation, Cybersecurity Standards

Wilson started out his career as an assistant to Chuck Todd on the National Journal’s Hotline and also worked for years at the Washington Post and The Hill before striking out on his own last year. He is an astute observer of state policy and politics as well as how the media covers those topics. In addition to state policy, Storey and Wilson also discussed the ongoing changes in the media coverage of legislatures.

Resources

• Pluribus News

Danger co-founded the Theater of Public Policy in Minnesota, which combines serious public policy discussion with improv comedy. On the podcast, he discussed how the skills you need for improv, such as careful listening, are also skills that can help in a legislative environment. He also laid out how his two-day presentation to the legislative staff groups will involve both a talk and a workshop. 

Resources

• RELACS/LRL Professional Development Seminar
• Tane Danger website
• The Theater of Public Policy

On this episode, we sat down with Brian Tegtmeyer, the National 911 Program Coordinator. The program is part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA. 

Tegtmeyer discussed some of the challenges facing the system. Like so many sectors of government and private industry, the 911 system is facing workforce shortages, so much so that nearly half of all call centers face staffing shortfalls even as the number of emergency calls rise every year.  

He also discussed the advantages of the Next Generation 911, the progress states have made in adopting to these new standards, funding to help with the transition and how legislators can find out more about the 911 system in their states.

Resources

• 2022 Key Enacted 911 Legislation, NCSL
• National 911 Program
• National Highway Safety and Traffic Administration

Storey sat down with Jacobson to discuss the 2024 edition of “The Almanac of American Politics,” a 2,000-page plus tome that will answer every question you might have and some you haven’t thought of about the state of our politics.

They also talked about how rapidly the political scene has changed in the last 20 years and his assessment of the key Electoral College states in the 2024 election.

Resources

• The Almanac of American Politics

To better understand how charitable nonprofits work with legislatures and the states, we sat down with David Thompson, vice president of public policy for the National Council of Nonprofits, the nation’s largest network of nonprofit organizations. 

Thompson explained the role of charitable nonprofits in our communities and how state government and nonprofits work together to address any number of challenges, and specifically the value of community-based organizations when it comes to helping government implement programs.

He also noted a challenge that charitable nonprofits have in common with state government—a shortage of workers—and ways government and the nonprofit sector can advance policies to try to address those shortages. 

Thompson also invited legislators around the country to join the National Nonprofit Legislative Caucus. For more information or to be added to the caucus for future communications, please contact the office of Maryland Senator Cheryl Kagan  or Tiffany Carter at the National Council of Nonprofits.  

RESOURCES

• National Council of Nonprofits
• National Nonprofit Legislative Caucus

On this episode, three experts on lobbying and compliance with ethics rules sat down to discuss how ethics rules have evolved and how attitudes about ethics rules have changed. Our guests are Doug Himes, the House ethics counsel in Tennessee; Mark Quiner, director of NCSL’s Center for Ethics in Government; and Elizabeth Bartz, the CEO and president of State and Federal Communications. 

Resources

• Code of Ethics, National Institute for Lobbying & Ethics 
• House Ethics Committee, Tennessee General Assembly
• State and Federal Communications

For this podcast, the guest is Ben Williams from NCSL, an expert on redistricting who discussed some of the interesting developments around the topic, including efforts in some states to reallocate inmate data. 

He talked about the recent legal developments and also about the efforts in 13 states to reallocate inmate data, for purposes of redistricting, from where people are incarcerated to where they lived before going to prison. Williams explained the pro and con arguments for such legislation. He also talked about what you can expect in the next several years around redistricting before the next census, and what attendees at the NCSL Legislative Summit in Indianapolis in August can expect from NCSL’s Elections and redistricting team.

This is a fast-moving policy area and just since this recording was finished, two more states have approved policies. As of today 15 states have adopted the policy—13 for the 2020 cycle and two more, Illinois and Maine, for the 2030 cycle.

Resources

• Inmate Data Reallocation in the 2020 Redistricting Cycle, NCSL
• NCSL 2023 Legislative Summit

Luoma discussed her Thoughtfully Fit approach and how it can help legislative staff and the rest of us cope with stress. She also shared that her Summit presentation will focus on how to develop flexibility that allows you to work well with people who are different from you. 

She also talked about resilience in the face of trauma and tragedy in her own life that helped her hone these coping skills.

Resources

• Darcy Luoma Coaching and Consulting
• NCSL 2023 Legislative Summit

Our first guest is Dr. Cynthia McCurren, a dean and professor at the School of Nursing of the University of Michigan in Flint. McCurren, who also serves as the board chair of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, discussed the role of nurses in the health care system, a variety of initiatives aimed at increasing the number of qualified faculty, and state and federal efforts to help address the problem. 

Our other guest is Sarah Jaromin from NCSL, who drilled down into a variety of state efforts aimed at increasing the supply of nursing faculty and also where legislators can learn more about different approaches being tried around the country. 

Resources

• Addressing Nursing Shortages: Options for States, (NCSL, 2022) 
• American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN)
• National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice (NACNEP)
• National Conference of State Legislatures - Health (NCSL)
• Nursing Faculty Shortage Fact Sheet, (AACN, 2020) 
• Preparing Nurse Faculty and Addressing the Shortage of Nurse Faculty and Clinical Preceptors, (NACNEP, 2021) 

Storey talked with Wirth about how the platform evolved and how his tech team has increasing used artificial intelligence tools to perform sophisticated analysis. Wirth broke down how he thought AI would affect state government, legislatures and individual legislators. He also offered some advice on managing the use of AI in legislatures, and explained why legislative offices may soon need AI tools to handle all the AI-generated communications they will be receiving. 

Resources

• Quorum

Joining the podcast is John Scott, the director of the Retirement Savings Project at the Pew Charitable Trusts. Scott explained the scope of the retirement savings problem, the difference between public and private employers, and the most promising approaches to help more people save for retirement.

Also on the show are two lawmakers involved in sponsoring legislation for state-facilitated savings plans. Senator Dallas Harris, a Democrat from Nevada, and Representative Michael O'Donnell, a Republican from Missouri, talked about the legislation they've introduced, how they've worked with employers in their states and the key challenges they faced in passing their legislation.

Resources

• Retirement Policy Project, Pew Charitable Trusts

That’s the context for national task force— Mental Health Matters: National Task Force on Workforce Mental Health Policy—funded by the U.S. Department of Labor working with NCSL and the Council of State Governments (CSG).

The guests on this podcast are Colorado Lt Gov Dianne Primavera (D) and Tennessee Sen. Becky Massey (R). The two are at-large co-chairs of the task force, which also includes 27 other state lawmakers from both parties.

The two spoke about what they’d learned in the course of the task force’s work, and about the goals, which include developing improved benefit and employment; access to mental health resources in the workplace; addressing underserved communities; and the shortage of mental health care workers.

The task force plans to issue the policy framework this summer that can serve as a resource for policymakers across the country.

Resources

• "Mental Health in the Workplace Toolkit," NCSL

King joined the army in 1995, eventually rising to a leadership role in the elite Army Rangers. On his third combat deployment in Afghanistan in 2012, King was leading a patrol in a small village when he stepped on an improvised explosive device and suffered horrific injuries, including the loss of both his legs.

He survived those wounds and just 21 months later, King did what most of us would think impossible: He ran the Boston Marathon on prosthetic blades. He hasn't stopped since. He's competed in marathons, triathlons. He's written books, talked to audiences all over the country, and he's talked about his injuries and why that opened him up to the possibilities that we all have in our lives. 

Resources

• NCSL 2023 Legislative Summit

Our guests are Anne Sappenfield, director of the Wisconsin Legislative Council and NCSL staff chair, and Heshani Wijemanne, assistant secretary of the California Senate. Sappenfield began working in the legislature in the mid-‘90s while Wijemanne has been a legislative staffer since 2016. 

Sappenfield and Wijemanne are both lawyers and they talked about why public service in the legislature was an attractive option after law school. They discussed the appeal of being involved in the legislative process, how things have changed in legislatures over the years and the challenge of explaining what they do to family and friends. 

They also talked about the challenges they faced during the pandemic and the critical role staff play in preserving the institution of the legislature.

Resources

• Legislative Staff Week 2023, NCSL
• Office of the Secretary of the Senate, California
• Wisconsin Legislative Council

They discussed LSMI and the hundreds of legislative staffers who have had the opportunity to enhance their management and leadership skills. Ehling also discussed her role as director of the Capital Fellows Program, which places 64 fellows each year in all three branches of California government. She reflected on how two decades as a legislative staffer helped her understand the value of recruiting a diverse group of fellows, many of whom still work in the legislature today.

Resources

• Center for California Studies

Also on the show is Shannon Kolman, who follows vaccine policy for NCSL. She notes the large number of vaccine related bills introduced in the past couple of years, and explains how legislatures have tried to make it easier for children to get vaccinated.

Resources

• Lawmakers Turn to Data Systems to Guide Vaccine Decision-Making, NCSL
• MMWR, Vaccination Coverage by Age 24 Months – National Immunization Survey – U.S. 2019-2021, CDC
• MMWR, Vaccination Coverage with Selected Vaccines and Exemption Rates Among Child in Kindergarten, CDC
• State Public Health Legislation Database, NCSL
• States with Religious and Philosophical Exemptions From School Immunization Requirements, NCSL
• Vaccine Policy Series, NCSL

• Senator Whitney Westerfield
• The Sentencing Project
• Why Youth Incarceration Fails: An Updated Review of the Evidence, The Sentencing Project

• Legislative Staff Management Institute, NCSL
• University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy

National Institute for Civil Discourse Next Generation Program

Millennial Action Project

• State Exchange on Employment and Disability, U.S. Department of Labor

• Earn to Learn

• Council of State Governments

• “The Time Is Now,” NCSL

• State Elections Database, NCSL

• Americans for the Arts

• 100% Human

• NCSL

• Prescription Drug State Bill Tracking Database | 2015-Present
• Rep. Iman Jodeh, Colorado General Assembly

• Peverill Squire, University of Missouri

• Biden-Harris Administration Announces $5.6 Million in Internet for All Grants to Two Minority-Serving Colleges and Universities in California, National Telecommunications and Information Administration
• Digital Inclusion Trailblazers, NDIA
• High-Speed Internet for All
• Join the NDIA Community
• The New Broadband Maps Are Finally Here, Federal Communications Commission, FCC
• State Digital Equity Plan Toolkit, NDIA
• See more about NDIA
• Updates on the Affordable Connectivity Program, NDIA
• Video and slides from NDIA Digital Equity Act and BEAD Webinar

• National Academy of Public Administration

• Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: Implementation and Key Resources, NCSL
• National Association of State Energy Officials
• Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs, U.S. Department of Energy

• Portable Benefits for Gig Workers, NCSL LegisBrief

• The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter

• Health Management Associates
• Medicaid: Unwinding From the Public Health Emergency, NCSL

• 2020 Traffic Safety Trends Report, NCSL
• Autonomous Vehicles State Bill Tracking Database, NCSL
• Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Webpage, NCSL
• Drunken Driving Webpage, NCSL
• Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: Implementation and Key Resources, NCSL
• Marijuana-Impaired Driving Webpage, NCSL
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• NCSL Transportation Webpage, NCSL
• NHTSA Statement on Traffic Fatalities
• Ron Thaniel bio
• Traffic Safety State Bill Tracking Database, NCSL
• Transportation Podcasts, NCSL

• Clint Hurdle’s website

• Energy Emergencies: The State Legislative Role in Planning and Response, NCSL
• FEMA Funding for Energy Resilience: Highlighting the Role of State Legislatures, NCSL
• NCSL Energy Homepage 
• NCSL Energy Resilience webinars
• Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response, DOE
• States Turn to Microgrids to Bolster Energy Resilience, NCSL

• Prescription Drugs Update: State Efforts to Boost Access and Lower Costs, NCSL
• Prescription Drug State Bill Tracking Database, NCSL

• Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Implementation, AASHTO
• Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, NCSL
• U.S. DOT Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act information

• Council of State and Tribal Epidemiologists
• Using Data Exchange to Improve Public Health, NCSL
• State Public Health Legislation Database, NCSL

• Robyn Benincasa website

• North American Securities Administrators Association
• Find your state securities regulator
• Regulation Best Interest
• NASAA Whistleblower Model Act
• NASAA Senior Model Act
• NASAA Restitution Assistance Fund Model Act

• Kevin O’Leary website
• Closing General Session: Of Spaceships and Shark Tanks, NCSL 2022 Legislative Summit

• Cannabis decriminalization overview, NCSL
• Cannabis Public Policy Consulting
• State cannabis policy enactment database, 2022, NCSL
• State medical cannabis laws, NCSL

• Bipartisan Policy Center
• Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University
• Getting Serious About Housing Supply Series, Bipartisan Policy Center
• How much are government regulations costing multifamily developers? Hint: A lot, Bipartisan Policy Center
• National Association of Home Builders
• NMHC-NAHB Cost of Regulations Report (2022), National Multifamily Housing Council
• “Opening Doors to Housing Security,” NCSL 2022 Legislative Summit 
• Which Metro Areas Are Seeing Rising Rents and Home Prices? All of Them, Bipartisan Policy Center

• Clay Jenkinson website

• Ranked Choice Voting, NCSL

• State Policy Options and Pharmacy Benefit Managers, NCSL
• Prescription Drug Trends: Pharmacy Benefit Manager Reform, Affordability Boards and More, NCSL

• National Institute for Civil Discourse

• Chris Sprowls wraps first season of ‘Read, White & Blue’ podcast, Florida Politics 

• Mental Health Emergencies, Law Enforcement and Deflection Pathways, NCSL

• The Cook Political Report

• Erica Keswin website
• Legislative Staff Week with Erica Keswin

• Association of State Drinking Water Administrators
• Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: Implementation and Key Resources, NCSL

• National Democratic Redistricting Committee
• National Republican Redistricting Trust
• OAS Episode 155 Transcription
• Redistricting resources, NCSL

• Jobs for the Future
• Labor and Employment homepage, NCSL
• Sen. Becky Massey, Tennessee Senate website

• Donna Washington website

• 2021 Consumer Data Privacy Legislation, NCSL

• Federal Funds Information for States
• Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: Implementation and Key Resources, NCSL

• David Toscano’s website
• “Fighting Political Gridlock: How States Shape Our Nation and Our Lives,” University of Virginia Press

• ARPA State Fiscal Recovery Fund Allocations, NCSL database
• Fiscal Policy homepage, NCSL
• How States Are Spending Their Stimulus Funds, NCSL

• 2022 State Legislative Calendar
• NCSL Experts Predict the Top Issues and Policy Trends for 2022
• NCSL Town Hall on the 2022 Legislative Sessions

The U.S. population is aging. In a little more than a decade, people 65 and older will outnumber children. Those older adults face economic, social and other challenges including the need for an array of long-term services.

Policymakers in a number of states are considering comprehensive approaches to support older adults. A few states have created what are termed master plans for aging that outline how the state can take on challenges in housing, transportation, health care, and other sectors.

Th guests on this podcast are Holly Riley, the aging services coordination director for Texas Health and Human Services, and Jarett Hughes, a senior policy advisor on aging for the governor of Colorado.

My guests discuss how their states are planning for this aging population, how they’ve tried to get key groups to work together on the effort and some of the lessons learned over years of developing their state plans.

Resources

• Building a Master Plan for Aging: Key Elements from States Planning for an Aging Population, The SCAN Foundation
• Comprehensive Policy Approaches to Support the Aging Population, NCSL
• Getting Started with a Master Plan for Aging, The SCAN Foundation
• Graying Gracefully: As the U.S. Ages, States Step Up Support, NCSL
• OAS Episode 148 Transcription

The guest for this episode of the podcast is Peter Groff, the former Senate president in Colorado, who also served in the Obama administration as head of the Faith Based Initiative Center for the U.S. Department of Education. He now works with the Education Trust in Washington, D.C., as a policy and political consultant.

Groff, who served first in the Colorado House and then the Senate, talked with NCSL Executive Director Tim Storey about a variety of topics around legislative leadership. They include how he navigated his role as the first Black person to lead a legislative chamber in Colorado, how to bridge divides with other legislators, and strategies to be an effective leader.

He also talked about the role model he had in his father, who spent 20 years in the Colorado Senate, and the historic nature of the day he was sworn in.

Resources

• LTIS Episode 4 Transcription
• The Education Trust

Newborn screening in the U.S. is the practice of testing every child in the country for a number of disorders, many of which can be addressed if caught early. States are in charge of newborn screening and receive advice from federal agencies.

On this podcast, Peter Kyriacopoulos, the director for public policy at the Association of Public Health Laboratories, discusses how the screening works, how it differs from state to state, the role public health laboratories play and the challenges they face. He also explains how the recommended uniform screening panel, or the RUSP, helps guide states in deciding which screenings to include.

A second guest is Kelsie George from NCSL, who tracks legislation related to newborn screening. She fills us in on the legislative landscape on the topic.

Resources

• American Association of Public Health Laboratories
• Early Detection, Diagnosis and Treatment Through Newborn Screening, NCSL LegisBrief
• NewSTEPs Newborn Screening Status for All Disorders, Association of Public Health Laboratories
• OAS Episode 147 Transcription

Mike Haridopolos, former Senate president in Florida, talks with Tim about how he went from teaching college history to taking the reins as the president of the Senate in one of our largest states.

Haridopolos, who spent 12 years in the Florida Legislature and led the Senate from 2010-12 now runs his own consulting firm, writes books and works frequently with political campaigns. He discusses his own path in politics, the challenge of keeping a caucus together, offers some advice for aspiring leaders and shares a few thoughts about his political heroes.

Resources

• LTIS Episode 3 Transcription
• MJH Consulting

State agencies charged with ensuring that custodial parents collect child support face a daunting challenge. Census Bureau data indicates fewer than half of custodial parents receive their full support payments.

Traditionally states have relied on civil contempt statutes to compel the noncustodial parent to pay up. But that process—which can result in onerous civil procedures and even jail time—often is unsuccessful and some research shows states can end up paying more to collect the payments than the custodial parent receives.

On this podcast, Heather Noble, assistant director for the Arizona Division of Child Support Services, and Michael Hayes, an official with the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, discuss a new procedural justice approach to child support that seeks to use principles such as respect, understanding and neutrality to increase the sense of fairness that parents feel in what is often a difficult process.

While the project is not finished, they discussed what the data shows so far and the difference it appears to be making. They also explained the research that is the foundation of the approach, and the role legislatures can have in their states.

Resources

• Arizona Division of Child Support Services
• Office of Child Support Enforcement
• OAS Episode 146 Transcription
• Procedural Justice: Alternatives to Civil Contempt in Child Support Cases, NCSL LegisBrief

A Starting Point is a civic engagement platform with some unusual star power behind it.

The website, which features a bipartisan cast of elected officials discussing policy, was co-founded by actors Chris Evans and Mark Kassen with another friend, medical tech entrepreneur Joe Kiani.

Kassen is the guest on the podcast, and he discusses why they started the site, the pros and cons of being from Hollywood in the political world and why it helps to have Captain America on your side.

The site, which has been up for about a year, features a series of video collections that range from pieces shot and produced by the platform’s crew to daily video posts sent in by elected officials from around the country. Kassen and his partners want more engagement with state legislators, and they hope that will happen as pandemic restrictions ease.

Resources

• A Starting Point
• OAS Episode 145 Transcription

On this podcast, we look ahead to the new term of the U.S. Supreme Court and look back at some decisions from the past term.

Our guide is Lisa Soronen, the executive director of the State and Local Legal Center. Soronen keeps a sharp eye on the U.S Supreme Court and monitors the court for decisions that affect state and local governments. The center also files amicus briefs in some cases.

We discussed the court’s new term and high-stakes cases around abortion, gun rights and the so-called shadow docket. She also discussed cases from the previous term.

Resources

• OAS Episode 144 Transcription
• State and Local Legal Center

The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020 sparked a cascade of state legislation affecting policing policy. There were more than 3,000 bills that were considered in legislatures, and more than 400 were signed into law.

The legislation came from both sides of the aisle. For this podcast, we spoke with Rep. Leslie Herod, a Democract from Colorado, and Sen. Whitney Westerfield, a Republican from Kentucky.

Herod discusses legislation she sponsored shortly after Floyd’s death that was one of the first pieces of legislation enacted in the nation. She also talks about how the death of Elijah McClain in Colorado galvanized efforts to pass legislation.

Westerfield is a leader in criminal justice issues in Kentucky, where the death of Breonna Taylor helped spur action around no-knock warrants. He discusses how bringing all the parties together was critical to passing good legislation.

Also on this episode is Amber Widgery, who tracks a number of criminal justice issues for NCSL. Amber talks about the trends in legislation, the bipartisan nature of the efforts in many places and the surprising fact that legislatures are addressing policies that affect law enforcement at the local level. She’s also putting together a session on this topic for NCSL’s Legislative Summit Nov. 3-5 in Tampa, Fla.

Resources

• NCSL Policing Legislation Database
• NCSL Statutory Database
• OAS Episode 143 Transcription
• Rep. Leslie Herod’s website
• Sen. Whitney Westerfield’s website

Leadership is a perennial topic of interest for those in the legislative world and few are better at digging into the topic that Nancy Koehn.

Koehn is a historian at the Harvard Business School where she holds the James E. Robinson chair of Business Administration. She is a prolific writer, the author of dozens of journal articles and several books. Her most recent book was “Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times.” It explores how five great leaders dealt with crisis. She is also frequently quoted in the press and shares what she’s learned studying leaders for more than two decades.

She joins host Tim Storey, the executive director of NCSL, for this wide-ranging conversation about the qualities of great leaders, the nature of courage, whether a great leader needs a vision and much more. Koehn also shares her favorite books and movies, some of which might surprise you.

Resources

• Nancy Koehn, Harvard Business School
• LTIS Episode 2 Transcription

NCSL’s Legislative Summit is back Nov. 3-5 in Tampa, Fla.

On this podcast, we talk with three of NCSL’s experts about some of the sessions coming up at the Summit.

Natalie Wood, director of NCSL’s Center for Legislative Strengthening, discusses a session on legislative oversight during an emergency, lessons learned by legislatures during the pandemic and why tension between the executive and legislative branches is actually a sign of a healthy state government.

The second guest is Erica MacKellar, a fiscal expert from NCSL, who previews a session on the state of state budgets and some of what attendees will hear from economist Dan White, a speaker at the Summit.

Kate Blackman, director of NCSL’s Health Program, rounds out the group. She highlights sessions planned for Summit that will look at the pandemic and its effect on the health care system, mental health and child care.

Resources

• 2021 Legislative Summit
• OAS Episode 142 Transcription

Redistricting is finally upon us. The once-a-decade process uses data from the census to draw congressional and state legislative districts in the states. Legislatures are in charge of redistricting, though commissions also play a role in some states.

Delayed data from the U.S. Census Bureau has left states behind in the process compared to earlier cycles. On this podcast, Wendy Underhill, who oversees election and redistricting issues at NCSL, talks about how the delays have affected states, what they did to prepare, new tools citizens can use to make their voices heard, and some thoughts on what she’s learned during her immersion over the past few years in the world of redistricting.

Resources

• NCSL Redistricting Homepage
• OAS Episode 141 Transcription

Welcome to the inaugural episode of “Legislatures: The Inside Storey,” a new podcast from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

On this first episode, Tim Storey, the executive director of NCSL, sits down with John Medina, a molecular biologist best known for his book “Brain Rules,” which explains how what we know about the brain can affect how we teach our children, approach our jobs and even change our daily lives.

They discussed how we communicate, the perils of power and how Medina switched from being an animator to studying brain science.

Resources

• Brain Rules website

NCSL’s Our American States podcast presents a special six-part series, “Building Democracy: The Story of Legislatures.” This new mini-series covers the history, characters and stories of state legislatures in America, from the beginnings in Jamestown, to the present day and into the future.

Each episode in the series will contain interviews with experts from inside and outside the legislative world to provide a comprehensive view of historical events and their legacy in today’s legislatures. Extras will include extended guest interview clips, articles in NCSL’s State Legislatures magazine, blogs and resources for those who want to dive deeper into topics covered in the podcast.

Episode 6

Our special podcast miniseries concludes by looking to the future of legislatures and how—in this centuries long relay of representative democracy—those currently serving will pass the baton to those who will lead these institutions into the future. With an exemplary lineup of guests, we examine possible challenges and future successes and explore how legislatures can honor long-held traditions and processes while building stronger, more effective and more representative 21st-century bodies.

Guests

• Scott Bedke, speaker, Idaho House of Representatives
• Nicole Cannizzaro, majority leader, Nevada State Senate
• Jason Frierson, speaker, Nevada House of Representatives
• Margaret O’Brien, secretary, Michigan Senate
• Tim Storey, executive director, NCSL

The cost of higher education, the amount of student loan debt, the percentage of students who receive degrees and other related issues have been debated in legislatures and on the campaign trail. Proposals for a new federal state-partnership on higher education and for free community college are among the issues being debated.

On this podcast we hear from Kevin Carey and Jason Delisle, both experts on higher education policy. Carey is the vice president for education policy and knowledge management at New America, a policy research organization. Delisle is a senior policy fellow at the Urban Institute.

The two discussed the track record on affordability, access and outcomes in U.S public higher education and the different approaches states have taken. They also assessed proposals for state-federal partnerships and the likelihood that different states might have very different attitudes toward the type of partnerships being proposed.

While they differ on a number of points, both agreed the complexities of how a federal-state partnership would work are largely missing from the public debate.

This topic also will be on the agenda for NCSL’s Legislative Summit in Tampa, Fla., Nov. 3-5.

Resources

• NCSL Higher Education Resources
• New America
• OAS Episode 140 Transcription
• The Urban Institute

On the podcast to discuss the workforce and how to help health care workers cope with the current challenges is Dr. Luis Padilla, the associate administrator for health workforce at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Padilla also serves as director of the National Health Service Corps.

Padilla discusses how HRSA supports states in strengthening the workforce. He also talked about the growing role of telehealth and the important role states have in regulating scope of practice rules.

The other guest is Sydne Enlund from NCSL. Enlund tracks of scope of practice laws across the country and maintains a website on the topic with interactive maps dealing with nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists and more. She discusses the role legislatures have played in modifying regulations for workers during the pandemic.

Resources

• Health Resource and Services Administration (HRSA) Bureau of Health Workforce (BHW)
• Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Data Warehouse
• Health Workforce Technical Assistance Center
• OAS Episode 139 Transcription
• Scope of Practice Policy website, NCSL
• The Telehealth Explainer Series, NCSL
• Telehealth: Health Care From the safety of Our Homes, HHS

On the podcast to discuss this emerging field is Dr. Carl Morrison, a molecular biologist and pathologist who is the senior vice president of Scientific Development and Integrative Medicine at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, N.Y. He is one of the nation’s leading researchers in the field.

Our second guest is Karmen Hanson, a policy expert at NCSL. She explains why these new treatments are important for legislators to understand, both so they can aid their constituents and because of the costs to the health care system.

Resources

• Advancing Health Equity, Addressing Cancer Disparities, American Cancer Society/Cancer Action Network
• Biomarker Testing, LUNGevity
• Cancer Disparities, National Cancer Institute
• Cancer in the 21st Century, NCSL
• Common Cancer Testing Terminology, Consistent Testing Terminology Working Group
• “Improving Access to Biomarker Testing,” American Cancer Society/Cancer Action Network
• “Development of an Actionable Framework to Address Cancer Care Disparities in Medically Underserved Populations in the United States,” JCO Oncology Practice
• “Know Your Biomarker,” Global Colon Cancer Association
• No One Missed, LUNGevity
• OAS Episode 138 Transcription
• “Precision Medicine,” Cancer Support Community

On the earlier podcast, we spoke with Washington Representative Sharon Tomiko Santos (D) and Kansas Representative Barbara Ballard (D) about their work with the Quad Caucus.

On this show, we talk with Senator Daniel Ivey-Soto (D), president of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators, and Senator Benny Shendo (D), chair of the National Caucus of Native American State Legislators. Both are from New Mexico.

They discussed the work of their caucuses, the census and redistricting, some of the challenges facing their communities and more.

Resources

• National Asian Pacific American Caucus of State Legislators
• National Black Caucus of State Legislators
• National Caucus of Native American State Legislators
• National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators
• OAS Episode 137 Transcription
• Quad Caucus, NCSL

Bejan will be the keynote speaker at NCSL’s online Base Camp event on Aug. 4 at 11 a.m. ET.

In this podcast, she talks about how civility works in politics, the difference between civility and talking about civility, the polarized state of our politics and more.

Resources

• NCSL Base Camp
• OAS Episode 136 Transcription
• Teresabejan.com

On this podcast to address the issue is Steven Cliff, the acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA.

Cliff spent several years in a variety of roles at the California Air Resources Board and previously worked as a research professor at the University of California at Davis. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry.

Cliff discussed how NHTSA and the states can work together on traffic safety issues, the increase in traffic fatalities during the pandemic, ongoing efforts to combat impaired driving and much more.

Resources

• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• NCSL Transportation Homepage
• OAS Episode 135 Transcription

A key focus of Manna’s research concerns the role of principals in K-12 education and ways to identify and groom candidates to become principals.

Manna talks about the critical role principals play, how a principal pipeline can work and why the investment in principal training is worthwhile. He also shared some thoughts for how legislators can approach the issue and policies that can help foster school leaders.

Resources

• Developing Excellent School Principals to Advance Teaching and Learning: Considerations for State Policy, Wallace Foundation
• New book tells story of Illinois’ principal preparation reform, Illinois State University
• North Carolina State University Educational Leadership Academy
• OAS Episode 134 Transcription
• “Principal Pipelines: A Feasible, Affordable, and Effective Way for Districts to Improve Schools,” Wallace Foundation
• Principals Pipeline Homepage, Wallace Foundation

Our two guests discuss when the emergency first became clear, the rush to acquire goods, how emergency operations centers were activated during the crisis and the key lessons learned. They offer advice to legislators, suggest policy and process changes for the next emergency and reflect on what they learned.

Resources

• “Assessing State PPE Procurement During COVID-19: A RESEARCH REPORT”
• National Association of State Procurement Officials
• NASPO ValuePoint
• OAS Episode 133 Transcription

The guest on the podcast is an expert in the area of health data and analytics. Niall Brennan is the president and CEO of the Health Care Cost Institute, a nonprofit that focuses on data to analyze key issues affecting the U.S. health care system. Brennan previously was chief data officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Brennan discusses the pros and cons of price transparency, examples of where it’s been effective and his skepticism about the individual consumer’s use of the information. He also shares some surprising examples of price variation for the same medical procedure in the same area—even in the same hospital group.

Resources

• Bringing Health Care Prices to Light, NCSL LegisBrief
• Cost and Quality Homepage, NCSL
• Health Care Cost Institute
• OAS Episode 132 Transcription

Many businesses have set higher minimum wages and 29 states and Washington, D.C., also have rates above the federal minimum.

On the podcast to discuss the topic are Dave Cooper, a senior economic analyst at the Economic policy Institute and an expert on the minimum wage. Also on the show is Saige Draeger, an NCSL policy expert.

Cooper, whose organization did research that informed the legislation, discussed who earns both the federal and state minimum wage and how raising it might affect public benefits and small businesses. He also talked about pros and cons of state legislators setting the minimum wage for their states. Draeger explained how states have taken action regarding the minimum wage.

Resources

• Economic Policy Institute
• Increasing the Minimum Wage, NCSL LegisBrief
• NCSL Labor and Employment Homepage
• OAS Episode 131 Transcription
• State Minimum Wages, NCSL
• Your Guide to the Ongoing Minimum Wage Debate, State Legislatures magazine

Illinois Senator Dan McConchie, the Senate minority leader, is one of the guests on the podcast. McConchie, who lost the use of his legs following a traffic accident more than a decade ago, has been a strong advocate for enforcement of the accessibility requirements in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). He talks about the pros and cons of the trend toward teleworking for people with disabilities and the role state lawmakers can play in ensuring those with disabilities are treated fairly and included in the economic recovery. He also reflected on the 30th anniversary of the ADA and where states can go from here to make it better.

The second guest is Saige Draeger, a policy expert at NCSL, who discusses the roles of state legislators in this area, a new NCSL report that dives into the topic and other resources NCSL can provide to lawmakers.

Resources

• COVID-19 and Employment for People With Disabilities, NCSL
• OAS Episode 130 Transcription
• Reports and Policy Briefs, U.S. Department of Labor
• State Exchange on Employment & Disability, U.S. Department of Labor

Our guests are Sabrina Lewellen, deputy director and assistant secretary of the Arkansas Senate, and Eric Nauman, lead fiscal analyst for the Minnesota Senate.

Our focus on this podcast on the “why” of legislative service. As legislatures have grown more partisan and often become more challenging environments in which to work, we asked our two guests, both longtime staffers, to talk about what motivates them, how they deal with the stress and what advice they would offer their colleagues.

Resources

• Legislative Staff Services Homepage
• OAS Episode 129 Transcription

Our guests include Craig Wethington with the Minnesota Department of Education. He discusses how his state has used collaborative improvement and innovation networks, or CoIINs, to improve the quality of school mental health services. He also talks about a community survey of students that indicates many kids were struggling with mental health issues even before the pandemic and how the legislature in his state worked to improve mental health programs.

Another guest on the show is Rebecca Astorga with the Arizona Department of Education. She discusses programs and resources states can employ to bolster their mental health services and the role that Project AWARE, a federal grant program, has played in expanding the capacity of the state to address mental health issues among young people.

We also talk with Noah Cruz, an NCSL policy researcher, who offers some background on the topic.

Resources

• Arizona Social Emotional Learning
• Children’s Behavioral Health, NCSL
• Enhancing School Capacity to Support Children’s Mental Health, NCSL
• Improving the School-Linked Mental Health Program, Report to the Minnesota Legislature
• Mitch Warnock Act/ARS15-120
• OAS Episode 128 Transcription
• Resilient Arizona Crisis Counseling Program

To discuss how the eviction crisis has grown during the pandemic, we invited Emily Benfer on the podcast. Benfer, a visiting professor of law at Wake Forest University and an expert on housing and health law, is the co-creator of the COVID-19 Housing Policy Scorecard with the Eviction Lab and principal investigator in a study of nationwide COVID-19 eviction moratoriums and housing policies. She also chairs the American Bar Association's COVID-19 Task Force Committee on Eviction.

Benfer explains how the pandemic has exacerbated the eviction problem, who is being evicted and how the recently extended federal eviction moratorium factors into the situation. She also explains the role state policymakers can play in implementing state eviction moratoriums and how some legal procedures can help people facing eviction.

Resources

• The American Eviction Crisis, Explained, The Appeal
• Approaches to Eviction Protection
• Eviction, Health Inequity, and the Spread of COVID-19: Housing Policy as a Primary Pandemic Mitigation Strategy, Journal of Urban Health
• OAS Episode 127 Transcription

On this podcast we talk with Washington Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos (D) and Kansas Rep. Barbara Ballard (D). Both are veteran legislators and longtime members of the Quad Caucus. Santos and Ballard discussed the work of the caucus and the effort to create more diverse legislatures.

Resources

• National Asian Pacific American Caucus of State Legislators
• National Black Caucus of State Legislators
• National Caucus of Native American State Legislators
• National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators
• OAS Episode 126 Transcript

NCSL’s Our American States podcast presents a special six-part series, “Building Democracy: The Story of Legislatures.” This new mini-series covers the history, characters and stories of state legislatures in America, from the beginnings in Jamestown, to the present day and into the future.

Each episode in the series will contain interviews with experts from inside and outside the legislative world to provide a comprehensive view of historical events and their legacy in today’s legislatures. Extras will include extended guest interview clips, articles in NCSL’s State Legislatures magazine, blogs and resources for those who want to dive deeper into topics covered in the podcast.

Episode 5

The fifth installment of NCSL’s six-episode podcast series takes place in the not-too-distant past. The work of legislating changed dramatically between the 1960s and the 1990s, resulting in more responsive and representative legislatures.

By the early 1900s, legislatures had become increasingly dependent upon the executive branch, decreasing their coequal status in state government. Beginning in the late ’50s and early ’60s, demands on legislatures grew and lawmakers and their constituencies became more diverse.

In response to 20th-century challenges, lawmakers began to spend more time on the job, with sessions getting longer and more frequent, often including interim work. These changes, along with exponential increases in the number of legislative staff, brought the work of legislators and the mission of legislative institutions into a new age.

Delve into the characters, stories and organizations that believed in representative democracy and the legislative institution enough to come together and study, innovate and create stronger legislatures.

Guests

• Representative Senfronia Thompson, Texas | Bio
• Former Senator Fred Risser, Wisconsin | Bio
• E. Dotson Wilson, former chief clerk, California State Assembly | Bio
• Speaker Bryan Cutler, Pennsylvania | Bio
• Bill Pound, former executive director, NCSL | Bio

Additional Resources

• Building Democracy: Episode 5 | Transcript (coming soon)
• Building Democracy: Episode 5 | Show Notes (coming soon)
• Building Democracy: Episode 5 | Resources and Reading List
• Women in Legislatures
• Legislator Demographics

The report’s author, Ann Morse, is federal affairs counsel for NCSL’s Immigrant Policy Project and a longtime observer of state legislation related to immigrants. Morse is the guest on this podcast.

Morse discusses the findings in the report, including a trend to address occupational licensing laws to reduce barriers to employment for foreign trained professionals who are in the country legally. She also talks about legislation related to education, law enforcement, driver’s licenses and more.

It’s been 35 years since the federal government has enacted comprehensive immigration legislation and Morse explains how that has motivated states to take action on their own and the possibility of action at the federal level under the new administration.

Resources

• "Immigrant Policy Project: Report on State Immigration Laws, 2020"
• NCSL Immigration Homepage
• OAS Episode 125 Transcription

James Whitehorne, chief of the Redistricting and Voting Rights Data Office at U.S. Census Bureau, is the first guest on the podcast. Whitehorne discusses how the pandemic affected the bureau’s ability to collect data, other challenges the bureau faced, the success of using online forms and offers some historical perspective on the 2020 count.

The second guest is Wendy Underhill, who oversees the Elections and Redistricting Program at NCSL. Underhill discusses steps states are taking to deal with the delayed data delivery and how it might affect election filing dates, and also reminds listeners that he census forms the basis of how the federal government distributes about $1.5 trillion annually to states.

Resources

• NCSL Redistricting Homepage
• NCSL Redistricting Seminars
• OAS Episode 124 Transcription
• Redistricting Law 2020
• U.S. Census Bureau

The guests on this podcast discuss what they discovered, the type of guidance the council offered leaders in the criminal justice system and what needs to change to prepare for the next catastrophe.

Our guests are Abby Walsh, the council’s vice president for strategy and operations, and Thomas Abt, director of the task force and an expert on criminal justice policy. He is also the author of “Bleeding Out: The Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence—and a Bold New Plan for Peace in the Streets.”

Resources

• Council on Criminal Justice
• National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice
• OAS Episode 123 Transcription
• Reports From the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice

Our guests are Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology at Brigham Young University in Utah, and Lori Gerhard, director of the Office of Interagency Innovation at the U.S. Administration for Community Living.

Holt-Lunstad, who has studied the topic for decades, discusses groups in society most at risk for social isolation and how public policy can help address the problem. Gerhard addresses particularly how social isolation affects older Americans and how policies at the federal and state level can help them with these challenges.

Resources

• OAS Episode 122 Transcription
• "Sustaining Behavioral Health Services Through the Pandemic"
• “The Double Pandemic of Social Isolation and COVID-19: Cross-Sector Policy Must Address Both,” by Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad
• U.S. Administration for Community Living

On this podcast, we talk with Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He discusses the range of treatments available to fight HIV/AIDS, strategies to prevent spread of the disease and the role state policymakers can play in helping eradicate the disease.

Our other guest if Charlie Severance-Medaris, a policy expert at NCSL. Charlie explains the steps states are taking to help people to get access to critical medications, changes in laws that have criminalized some behaviors for people with HIV/AIDS, and other efforts at the state level to end the epidemic.

Resources

• Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America, CDC
• Ending the HIV Epidemic: Jurisdictional Plans, NASTAD
• HIV and STD Criminalization Laws, CDC
• National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention
• NCSL’s Injury Prevention Database
• NCSL’s Substance Use Disorder Treatment Database
• OAS Episode 121 Transcription
• Preventing Infectious Diseases Caused by Injecting Drugs
• Syringe Service Programs, CDC

Our guest, Monica Giannone, is a consultant and trainer specializing in negotiation and conflict resolution. She also runs the Harvard Kennedy School Negotiation Project and is an adjunct lecturer in negotiation at Babson College.

Resources

• Harvard Kennedy School Negotiation Project
• OAS Episode 120 Transcripton

On this podcast we discuss how those plans were created, how they’ve had to change as the pandemic has progressed and what lies ahead.

Our guests are Hemi Tewarson, an expert in state plans to distribute the COVID-19 vaccines. She is a visiting senior policy fellow at the Margolis Center for Health policy at Duke University. As a health policy expert, she has studied the state vaccine plans and discusses how those are working, changes in federal guidance and when everyone will have access to the vaccine.

Our other guest is Tahra Johnson, a policy expert at NCSL. Tahra discusses state legislative action related to vaccine plans and how legislators can get involved in the planning process.

Resources

• COVID-19 Vaccination Program- Interim Playbook, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• State Action on Coronavirus (COVID-19), NCSL COVID-19 Legislation Database
• "First COVID-19 Vaccine Administered in the U.S.," State Legislatures magazine
• Framework for Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccine, National Academy of Medicine
• OAS Episode 119 Transcription
• State Health Action on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
• "State Legislatures Inject Momentum Into COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts," State Legislatures magazine

On this podcast we discuss how states are dealing with this challenge. One of our guests is Anne Winter, a Medicaid strategist with the national research and consulting firm Health Management Associates. Winter, who has particular expertise in pharmacy benefit management, discusses some of the strategies state are employing.

Our other guest is Colleen Becker, a policy expert at NCSL, who lays out the scope of the challenge facing states.

Additional Resources

• NCSL Health Program
• OAS Episode 118 Transcription

Tim Storey, executive director of NCSL, is the guest on the podcast and offers his perspective on what it all means. We discussed how legislatures will meet, what their priority lists look like, how budgets are shaping up and what a new administration in Washington, D.C., means for states.

Additional Resources

• 2021 Session Prep: Resources for Legislative Staff
• OAS Episode 117 Transcription
• Back to the Future: The Past Year Will Guide Planning for 2021 Sessions
• State of State Legislatures 2020, Podcast

On the podcast, Ben Williams, an NCSL policy expert on redistricting, explains how the election sets up legislatures to start the redistricting process, and discusses when the U.S. Census Bureau will supply states with the data they need to do both reapportionment and redistricting. He also fills us in on upcoming three-day redistricting seminar offered by NCSL that will take legislators and legislative staff through the various challenges involved in the process.

Resources

• NCSL Online Redistricting Seminar | Jan. 6-8, 2021
• OAS Episode 116 Transcription
• Redistricting Homepage

On this podcast, I’m joined by Alabama Representative Debbie Wood and former Maine Representative Matt Moonen. They bring different perspectives. Wood, a Republican, was elected in 2018, and is completing her first term. Moonen, a Democrat, was first elected in 2012 and retired this year because of term limits. He served as House majority leader.

They talked about what surprised them the most when they first arrived in the legislature; how they handle relationships with colleagues, lobbyists and constituents; and their best piece of advice for new legislators.

Resources

• NCSL New Members Webpage
• OAS Episode 115 Transcription
• What I Wish I Knew Parts 1 and 2, NCSL podcasts

On this podcast, the focus is on maternal mortality. I talk with Dr. Wanda Barfield, the director of the Division of Reproductive Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She discusses efforts by the CDC to reduce the number of deaths, including sharing strategies with state legislators as they try to craft solutions that work best in their states.

My second guest is Khanh Nguyen, a policy expert at NCSL who tracks legislation related to maternal mortality. She shares examples of specific legislation and approaches employed by states, including a focus on helping Black and Indigenous women.

Additional Resources

• Healthy Women, Healthy Pregnancies, Healthy Futures: Action Plan to Improve Maternal Health in America, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Hear Her campaign, CDC
• OAS Episode 114 Transcription
• Reproductive Health, CDC
• Saving Moms: Strategies to Reduce Maternal Mortality in the U.S., NCSL webinar
• The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Improve Maternal Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

NCSL’s Our American States podcast presents a special six-part series, “Building Democracy: The Story of Legislatures.” This new mini-series covers the history, characters and stories of state legislatures in America, from the beginnings in Jamestown, to the present day and into the future.

Each episode in the series will contain interviews with experts from inside and outside the legislative world to provide a comprehensive view of historical events and their legacy in today’s legislatures. Extras will include extended guest interview clips, articles in NCSL’s State Legislatures magazine, blogs and resources for those who want to dive deeper into topics covered in the podcast.

Episode 4

In this installment of NCSL’s six-episode podcast series, “Building Democracy: The Story of Legislatures,” we travel west to see how women fought and won their right to vote, as well as how they shaped state legislatures and life on the frontier well before the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

The story of the 19th Amendment and its dramatic ninth-hour ratification on the floor of the Tennessee House is well known and often told. Yet, momentous events in the history of women in the American West are overlooked. While their sisters fought in the salons, houses of worship and halls of government in the urban “civilized” East, women strode ahead helping to form governments in the rough and yet malleable West. Women in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado (to name only a few) fought against stereotypes and social expectations to win the recognition of their rights as American citizens. Each state’s suffrage movement had unique motivations and avenues to success. One common thread to their strategies? State legislatures.

Guests

• Senator Affie Ellis, Wyoming│ Bio
• Representative Meg Froelich, Colorado │ Bio
• Rebekah Clark, historical research associate, Better Days 2020│ Bio

One of those people is Tim Storey, executive director of NCSL and a close observer of state legislative contests for decades. Even after the election, policymakers in Washington, D.C., are likely to remain gridlocked and the real action will be in state legislatures, Storey says. He breaks down the results of the election and how it will affect redistricting, action on the pandemic and the economy, and more.

Our second guest in Amanda Zoch, an NCSL expert on statewide ballot measures, who takes us through what passed, what it says about the policy concerns of Americans and a few of the more unusual measures that voters said yes to on Election Day.