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  • RELEASE: Body representing every state legislature in country backs public health insurance option
    Jul 23, 2009

    PHILADELPHIA — Today, the hotly contested public health insurance option won a final stamp of approval from the body representing every state legislature in the country. After passing through the National Conference of State Legislatures' Standing Health Committee on Tuesday, an amendment to the organization's official policy recommendations calling on the federal government to create a public health insurance option was approved by the NCSL's full body by a 38 to 11 vote. Legislators backing the amendment cited the need to break the impasse in Washington as one of their primary reasons for passing it.

    According to Iowa State Senator Jack Hatch (D, Des Moines), who introduced the amendment, “Today, we sent a very clear message to people dragging their feet in Washington: the time to act on health reform is now, and states are not going to sit on the sidelines and watch. We won't settle for halfway measures and we won't stand for delay. We need a public health insurance option to make sure working families and small businesses are free to choose the best health care available at a price they can afford. And we need it now.”

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  • RELEASE: Body representing all U.S. state legislatures moves to endorse public option
    Jul 21, 2009
    PHILADELPHIA — This Tuesday, the hotly contested public health insurance option won endorsement from the body representing every state legislature in the country. Citing the need for immediate action to stem the rising costs of health care, three quarters of the states represented on the the National Conference of State Legislatures' Standing Committee on Health voted to include an amendment calling for a public health insurance option in the committee's policy recommendations for federal health care reform. On Thursday, the recommendation will come up for a vote before the full body of NCSL, whose membership includes over 7,500 state legislators across the country.
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  • RELEASE: PSN condemns Rell's veto of groundbreaking health care bills, urges override
    Jul 09, 2009

    NEW YORK — In response to Governor Rell's veto yesterday of two groundbreaking health care bills, Progressive States Network Senior Health Care Policy Specialist Adam Thompson today released the following statement:

    “By passing the Connecticut Healthcare Partnership and SustiNet earlier this year, the Connecticut General Assembly gave Governor Rell a unique opportunity. She could have been the first Governor in the country to implement a public health insurance option. She could have extended quality affordable care to 98 percent of the population. She could have given badly needed financial relief to working families and small businesses at a time when they need it most. Instead she chose to uphold a status quo that is crippling the economy and sending families into bankruptcy.
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  • Progressive States Network Lauds NJ Governor and Legislative Sponsors for for passing innovative permanent absentee voting law
    Jul 01, 2009
    Yesterday, Governor Corzine signed A 2451, the Vote by Mail Law of 2008, bringing New Jersey's absentee voting procedures decisively into the 21st Century. The law, sponsored by Senator Raymond Lesniak and Assemblywoman Joan Quigley, replaces New Jersey's multiple absentee voting systems with one streamlined system for use by all voters. In addition the law now gives voters the option of permanently voting by mail, as is available in Colorado, California, Montana and Washington. Under this option voters could apply once to receive either a ballot in every election for the next year or receive ballots indefinitely for all general elections.
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  • RELEASE: Delegation representing 700 state legislators meets with White House, Congress to urge public health insurance option
    Jun 17, 2009
    WASHINGTON, D.C. - As battle lines are drawn on Capitol Hill in the coming battle over health care reform, state legislators are taking on a central role in the debate. Today, at a Capitol Hill press conference hosted by Sen. Tom Harkin and a White House meeting with Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Director of the White House Office of Health Care Reform Nancy-Ann DeParle, a delegation of state legislators organized by the national group Progressive States Network delivered a letter urging comprehensive health care reform within the year. The letter, which was signed by 700 legislators from 47 states, called for any federal reform bill to include a public health insurance option, strong affordability protections, and shared employer responsibility for health care costs.
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  • RELEASE: PSN Lauds passage of CT bills to create option of public health insurance pan
    May 21, 2009
    NEW YORK - The Progressive States Network warmly applauds the Connecticut House of Representatives' passage last night of two landmark bills that would each create the choice of a public health insurance plan in the state, the Connecticut Health Partnership, and SustiNet.  The votes underscore the growing momentum at the state level for the choice of a public plan, a priority for reform endorsed by many health care advocates and lawmakers at the national level.

    Said Progressive States Network Senior Health Care Policy Specialist Adam Thompson, “If lawmakers in the insurance industry capital of the world can build the political will to pass legislation including the choice of a public health insurance plan, then surely our leaders in Washington DC can do the same.” 
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  • RELEASE: Obama concession on emissions standards highlights states' role as leaders on regulation
    May 19, 2009

    NEW YORK — Today, Progressive States Network (PSN) lauded President Obama's decision to accept California's tough new 35.5 miles-per-gallon fuel emissions standards. The group hailed today's victory as a landmark example of states' power to set national policy by outpacing federal legislation.

    Said PSN's Interim Executive Director, Nathan Newman, "The spin from auto industry executives is that Obama's decision demonstrates the wisdom of letting the federal government set a unified national standard instead of a 'patchwork' of state regulations. In fact, the complete opposite is true. If it weren't for California pushing to set standards that outpaced the Bush Administration's pitifully low ones, there would be no new regulatory framework to enact today."
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  • State legislators from across nation sign letter to Obama, Congress urging health care reform within the year
    May 14, 2009

    NEW YORK — Today, the Progressive States Network (PSN) began publicly circulating an open letter from state legislators to President Obama and Congress urging them to pass comprehensive health care reform within the year. The letter has already been signed by over 100 legislators from 27 states, including 19 health care committee chairpersons, and is gathering more signatures daily.

    The letter maintains that “the private sector alone has proven incapable of creating a high-quality, fair, and accountable health care system that works for all families,” and that our “disjointed health care system has formed a choke-hold on our economy.” The letter calls for a “robust federal-state collaboration” to deliver Americans “the choice of a public health insurance plan that is available to businesses, individuals, and families.”

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  • Progressive States Network applauds Labor Department's new priorities to protect all workers
    May 01, 2009

    NEW YORK — The Progressive States Network, a national network of state legislators and advocates, is in full support of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis’ new priorities for the department. In her remarks yesterday at a press conference with New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, Solis reiterated her commitment to ensure basic protections for all workers, native and immigrant alike.

    Solis has committed the Labor Department to investigating wage and hour law violations by employers and health and safety concerns. This much needed policy will help address the pervasive problems of the underground economy by preventing unscrupulous employers from threatening and exploiting undocumented workers, thus maintaining higher labor standards for all.

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  • Progressive States Network lauds Gov. Gregoire and WA legislators for supporting national popular vote
    Apr 28, 2009

    OLYMPIA - With Gov. Gregoire's signature, Washington State today became the fifth state in the nation to enact theNational Popular Vote bill, joining Maryland, New Jersey, Hawaii andIllinois. The state's 11 electoral votes combine with 50 from the otherfour states to bring the total number of electoral votes to 61 — 22% ofthe 270 needed to implement a National Popular Vote. In addition totoday's victory, legislative chambers in Arkansas, Colorado, NewMexico, Oregon and Vermont have passed popular vote legislation so farthis year.
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