Members approve dozens of new policy resolutions

NACo members adopted more than 100 policy resolutions at their Annual Business Meeting. What follows are the new resolutions adopted for the first time at the 2016 business meeting.

AGRICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Oppose Inconsistent GMO Regulation

Issue: Lack of standardization of GMO regulations causing a checkerboard effect to localities causing different requirements

Adopted Policy: The National Association of Counties (NACo) supports a comprehensive plan to address the co-habitation of genetically engineered and non-genetically engineered crops to provide a strong and robust agriculturally-based economy. NACo supports policies provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that standardize or unify regulation of genetically engineered crops which alleviate the need for county or municipal governing bodies to regulate, investigate or enforce regulation of related ordinances or laws.

Urge USDA to Increase the Population Cap for Rural Development Broadband Grant Initiatives

Issue: To increase the population limits for USDA Rural Development Broadband Grant Initiatives

Adopted Policy: The National Association of Counties (NACo) encourages the USDA to increase the population cap for Rural Development Broadband Grant Initiatives from 20,000 to 50,000.

ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND LAND USE

EPA’s Efforts to Institute Numeric Water Quality-Based Effluent Limitations on Local Governments

Issue: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeks to tighten watershed-wide water quality standards on all localities within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, which will have implications on other counties across the nation

Adopted Policy:  The National Association of Counties (NACo) opposes efforts by U.S. EPA to institute localized numeric water quality-based effluent limitations or area pollution targets.

Compensatory Mitigation In-Lieu Fee Programs

Issue: Ensuring that mitigation programs occur in the watershed or region where the impact occurred

Adopted Policy: NACo believes that in-lieu fees for compensatory mitigation should be used in the watershed where the fee was collected.

Remove Salt Cedar from Rivers

Issue: Support congressional action to address the permitting process and funding for the removal of salt cedar, an invasive species, from rivers

Adopted Policy: NACo supports federal legislation which would allow county governments to comprehensively remove the salt cedar from rivers within their jurisdiction.

Urge Congress to Provide Funding for Local Efforts to Address Sea Level Rise

Issue: Addressing the threat posed by rising sea levels to the built environments of coastal communities across the country

Adopted Policy: The National Association of Counties (NACo) urges Congress to provide appropriate financial assistance and support to local governments for sea level rise related initiatives and projects that aim to develop adaptive solutions to the potentially devastating impacts of sea level rise.

Support the Use of Woody Biomass as an Energy Source

Issue: Urge the federal government to recognize that energy derived from woody biomass sources is renewable and carbon neutral

Adopted Policy: The National Association of Counties (NACo) supports and encourages the further use of woody biomass energy sources, like wood chips and wood pellets, which are both renewable and carbon neutral.

Support Flexibility in the New Regulations on Migratory Bird Patterns and Environmental Permitting

Issue: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) is considering regulations to authorize incidental take of migratory birds, which will impact county owned infrastructure

Adopted Policy: The National Association of Counties (NACo) urges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to address local government as separate sector in the proposed Migratory Bird Treaty Act Incidental Take Permit rulemaking. NACo supports minimizing the regulatory costs to local government in acknowledgment of public health and safety functions. NACo encourages the USFWS to share best management practices.

FINANCE, PENSIONS AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

Preserve Municipal Investment Options and Access to Capital for Public Infrastructure and Economic Development

Issue: State and local governments rely on access to robust capital markets to finance the construction and maintenance of schools, roads, public transportation systems, affordable housing, airports and other important infrastructure projects. Money market funds facilitate that access by investing in short-term municipal debt that is normally held to maturity. That access has been put at risk by a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule that requires prime and tax-exempt money market funds offered to institutional investors to no longer use amortized cost accounting to operate on a stable net asset value (NAV) basis.  Instead, beginning October 14, 2016, such funds would be required to use a floating NAV.  Bipartisan and bicameral legislation has been introduced in Congress to permit money market funds that invest in the short-term debt of commercial entities and state and local governments to continue to use amortized cost accounting for valuing fund assets. The legislation would preserve money market funds as a source of liquidity and capital for the public infrastructure needs of our citizens.

Adopted Policy: The National Association of Counties (NACo) urges Congress to enact S. 1802/H.R. 4216, the Consumer Financial Choice and Capital Markets Protection Act.  The legislation will preserve communities’ access to capital and promote economic development by expressly permitting any money market fund with the choice to operate on a stable net asset value (NAV) basis if it adheres to certain requirements and restrictions.  The legislation would not have any impact on the other changes to the regulation of money market funds that were adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2010 and 2014. 

Support U.S. Census Bureau’s Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) Program

Issue: Supporting U.S. Census Bureau’s Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) Program

Adopted Policy: The National Association of Counties (NACo) supports the U.S. Census Bureau’s Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) Program and encourages county governments to participate in the 2020 LUCA program to ensure that all addresses in their communities appear in the Census Bureau’s Master Address File.  A complete and accurate address list will ensure that every household can be enumerated during the 2020 Census.

Lew Gaiter, Laramie County, Colo. commissioner,  waits his turn  to speak during a discussion on a policy resolution. Photo by Leon Lawrence III

HEALTH

Extend Federal Medical Payments to Detainees in County Jails who are Pre-adjudicated

Issue: Extending federal Medicaid payments to detainees in county jails who are pre-adjudicated

Adopted Policy: The National Association of Counties (NACo) seeks a federal legislative change to require the federal Medicaid program to contribute the federal Medicaid match for health and mental health care that is provided while a pre-adjudicated detainee is actually incarcerated.

Extend the New Medicaid IMD Payment Provisions

Issue: Extending new CMS IMD provisions to non-managed care entities

Adopted Policy: The National Association of Counties (NACo) requests that CMS extend the new Medicaid IMD payment provisions permitting up to 14 days per month of inpatient/residential care to IMD organizations that are not part of Medicaid managed care systems.

Urge Consultation with Counties on Zika Response Plans and Adequate Funding

Issue:  Counties play a large role in preventing, preparing and responding to the Zika virus through multiple functions including public health education and surveillance, mosquito control and emergency preparedness

Adopted Policy: The National Association of Counties (NACo) urges the Administration and Congress to require consultation with counties on federal and state Zika response plans and provide appropriate funding levels for Zika preparedness and response that do not divert funds from other public health priorities. 

HUMAN SERVICES AND EDUCATION

Urge Congress to Amend the Family First Prevention Services Act

Issue: The Family First Prevention Services Act (H.R. 5456) would significantly reform Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance. It would deny IV-E foster care and adoption assistance eligibility to many children who are eligible under current federal and state laws, and, effective in Fiscal Year (FY) 2020, provide new federal entitlement funding for optional foster care prevention services. It would also impose new federal requirements relating to congregate (group home) care that would reduce federal IV-E reimbursement and shift costs to states and counties. The bill was introduced on June 13, 2016, passed by the House on June 21st under a rule prohibiting amendments, and placed on the Senate floor calendar on June 23rd under a similar rule which would not allow any amendments. This bill’s impacts on children and families served by the child welfare system are too enormous to rush its enactment without any hearings or opportunity to amend it. 

Adopted Policy: The National Association of Counties (NACo) urges Congress to amend the Family First Prevention Services Act so that it would not shift increased costs to states and counties by denying Title IV-E eligibility to children who would remain eligible for state or county-funded foster care and adoption assistance. In doing so, Congress should also provide states and counties with sufficient flexibility to serve and protect abused and neglected children as done currently under some state laws and through federal waivers to promote more effective ways of serving children at no additional cost. NACo further urges that the bill’s proscriptive provisions intended to reduce the use of congregate care be amended so that states and counties already proceeding with similar efforts may continue to do so.    

JUSTICE AND PUBLIC SAFETY

Amend the Equal Access to Justice Act

Issue: Proposed Resolution on the Equal Access to Justice Act

Adopted Policy:

1. Supports legislation that amends the Equal Access to Justice Act and the federal judicial code to require the Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States to report to Congress annually on the amount of fees and other expenses awarded to prevailing parties other than the United States in certain administrative proceedings and civil action court cases (excluding tort cases) to which the United States is a party, including settlement agreements.

2. Supports requirements that such reports: (1) describe the number, nature, and amount of the awards, the claims involved in the controversy, and any other relevant information that may aid Congress in evaluating the scope and impact of such awards; and (2) be made available to the public online.

3. Supports legislation that directs the Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States to create and maintain online a searchable database containing specified information with respect to each award including the name of the agency involved, the name of each party to whom the award was made, the amount of the award, and the basis for finding that the position of the agency concerned was not substantially justified.

4. Supports legislation that requires the head of each federal agency (including, with respect to court cases, the Attorney General [DOJ] and the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts) to provide the Chairman all information requested to produce such reports.

5. Supports raising the EAJA reimbursement level to $200 per hour, reflecting the market rate, so that those in need (i.e. veterans and small business) and those that are “directly and personally harmed” can afford a decent and marketable attorney.

6. Supports the institution of a $7 million net worth cap regardless of tax exempt status to reduce the number of lawsuits filed by large nationwide fringe groups that profit from habitual lawsuits.

FEMA Implementation of Biological Opinion Reasonable and Prudent Alternatives

Issue: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) operates the National Flood Insurance Program and a recently issued biological opinion (BiOp) from National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) proposes that all development in floodplain causes jeopardy to endangered species (salmon)

Adopted Policy: The National Association of Counties (NACo) recommends that FEMA’s implementation of the Reasonable and Prudent Alternatives (RPAs) be done after extensive input from local and state governments. Local land use laws and ordinances need to be evaluated in order to understand the protections that are already in place. NACo recommends that FEMA does not unnecessarily overreach in its implementation stage.

TRANSPORTATION

Regulate Air Ambulances under the Airline Deregulation Act (ADA)

Issue: Air ambulances cannot be regulated under the Airline Deregulation Act (ADA), and therefore are able to charge exorbitant rates

Adopted Policy: The National Association of Counties (NACo) supports policies to remove air ambulances from the definition of “Air Carrier” in ADA or other policy to protect consumers from price-gouging and/or balance billing conducted by some air ambulance providers.  NACo encourages Congress to cause a thorough and complete study of Air Ambulance operations to be conducted.

Indian School Bus Route Maintenance

Issue:  Tribal residents of counties whose regional road networks include primary access routes that are tribal dirt roads are denied access to education due to the failure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to enforce its own National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) guidance for categorical exclusions

Adopted Policy:  The National Association of Counties (NACo) urges Congress include language in Department of Interior (DOI) Appropriation bills directing the BIA to comply with DOI regulations for enforcement of NEPA, (43 CFR Part 46.210), BIA Guidebook (59 IAM 3-H), and DOI’s Departmental Manual (516 DM 10.5), to adhere to all three NEPA compliance components:

1. Categorical Exclusion;

2. Environmental Assessment; and

3. Environmental Impact Statement.

Stress the Important Role of Counties in Establishing and Implementing Laws and Regulations for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)

Issue: Counties must have a seat at the table as Congress and the Administration develop and implement laws and regulations relating to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), i.e. drones

Adopted Policy: The National Association of Counties (NACo) calls on Congress and the president to consult and work closely with county officials and other local stakeholders as they consider new legislation and regulations addressing the emerging UAS/drone industry and to permit appropriate local regulations in any new legislation or regulation. We further urge the FAA to allocate additional seats on the Drone Advisory Council to counties.