NACo 2005 Key Legislative Priorities

Health Care Financing
Support the financing of our nation’s health care system to recognize the roles and responsibilities of county governments.  Specifically to address the issues of health disparities, indigent and uncompensated health care and other health services provided at the counties’ expense.

Remote Sales Tax Collections
Support the collection and distribution to states and counties of current sales taxes due on purchases made by mail order and over the Internet. Support the Streamlined Sales Tax System and urge states to pass such model sales tax legislation.

Surface Transportation Reauthorization
Undertake a comprehensive legislative effort to reauthorize the highway, transit, and safety programs in TEA-21, with a particular emphasis on funding that meets the growing transportation needs of county governments. Also implement a workable environmental streamlining process, and improve local government input in the planning and programming of federal transportation funds.  Support legislation that provides additional federal support for seaports, inland waterways and intermodal connections that contribute to maintaining and expanding the economic health of counties.

Social Services and Workforce Legislation 
Reauthorize the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant. Reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act to maintain local authority in the and provide sufficient funding for social services and workforce programs to support needy families and provide workers with training they need to obtain jobs that pay a livable wage.  Protect county financial and programmatic interests in legislation to reform the federal foster care system.  Telecommunication Act Rewrite
Support rewriting provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which include protecting existing authorities and revenues, and addressing issues of convergence across a broad range of communications and technology platforms.

Help America Vote Act
Extend deadlines for compliance with the Help America Vote Act due to federal delay in establishing standards.

Forest Counties Safety Net
Reauthorize PL 106-393 (the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act) to provide revenue to those counties across the country that no longer receive 20 percent of receipts from timber sales.

Oppose Unfunded Mandates and Preemption
Oppose unfunded mandates from Congress, and the George W. Bush Administration, and oppose legislation or regulations that preempt county authority, such as land-use regulatory authorities, telecommunications and cable rights-of-way and other locally-based functions.

Other Significant Priorities

Agriculture and Rural Affairs

• Strengthening rural communities and their economies: Specific pieces of legislation include the New Homestead Act of 2003, the National Drought Preparedness Act and the annual agriculture appropriations bill, where NACo will urge increased funding for infrastructure and conservation programs. New legislative opportunities that may come in the first session of the 109th Congress.
• The committee looks to complement other NACo steering committees on hot-button issues such as homeland security, healthcare and telecommunications.

Community and Economic Development

• Maintain appropriations for the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) and the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME).

• Maintain funding for federal economic development programs in agencies such as HUD and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

• Enact a homeownership tax credit that will help spur revitalization efforts in local communities.

Environment, Energy and Land Use

• Increased and continued funding for the Clean Water (CW) and Drinking Water (DW) State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF).

• NACo calls on Congress and the Administration to clarify that municipal streets and gutters and man-made ditches are excluded from the definition of “waters of the United States.” Such waters should be regulated at the local level and not be subject to federal regulations.  NACo supports the federal policy of “no net loss/ net gain of wetlands.”

• Support for a national research and development program that promotes the use of kinetic, alternative and renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal and biomass in its various forms.

Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs

• Preserve the deductibility of taxes paid to state and local government.

• Enact bankruptcy reform legislation that includes language endorsed by NACo and NACTFO (National Association of County Treasurers, Financial Officers).

Health

• Health Disparities: Support efforts to reduce health disparities.  As providers of last resort it is critical to county health care providers to ensure accessible primary health care services to minority populations in order to improve community health.

• Medicaid Reform: Medicaid reform efforts need to recognize the roles and responsibilities of county governments.  Reforms need to be made to address the issues of rising health care costs and reducing the ranks of the uninsured.

• Prevention: The initial investment in prevention efforts will help to curb rising health care costs in many areas, specifically in chronic disease treatment.  Early intervention and education on issues such as obesity, diabetes, mental health, chronic disease, etc. can lead to cost savings for county governments in the treatment of these health conditions.

Human Services

• Immigration Reform: Secure federal reimbursement for county costs associated with services provided to legal immigrants, undocumented workers and refugees.

• Reauthorization of the Older Americans Act: Enhance funding for county services to in the reauthorization of the Older Americans Act, with special attention to the needs of the growing senior citizen population in rural America.

Justice and Public Safety

• Fully fund federal legislation that would help divert non-violent mentally ill offenders from county jails and juvenile detention facilities and to revise federal and state regulations that terminate entitlement benefits for such persons who often have not even have been adjudicated.

• Seek enactment of NACo’s basic policies on homeland security, including a strong emphasis on prevention, regional planning, specialized training, interoperability and an “all-hazards approach” to emergency management.

• Seek enactment of comprehensive prisoner re-entry legislation that treats counties as equal partners with the states.      

Labor and Employment

• Pensions and Retirement Savings Reforms: protect counties interests in any new legislation affecting these issues.

Public Lands

• Fully fund Payment in Lieu of Taxes and Refuge Revenue Sharing.

• Reform the Endangered Species Act.

Transportation

• Funding/Appropriations for Transportation Programs: Support funding levels in the FY06 budget and appropriations process that adequately funds government transportation programs that serve and connect the populations of counties and other local governments, with particular emphasis on highway funding, the urban and rural formula transit programs, the airport improvement program and the essential air service program, and Amtrak.