PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island -- Governors voiced anxieties about Bush administration policies from energy to education during the summer meeting of the National Governors Association.
They got some reassurance Tuesday, however, when the nation's energy secretary announced his agency would work closely with the governors' group to develop guidelines on the sensitive issue of who decides the routes for electrical transmission lines.
``I'm very confident that working with the governors we can resolve any problems,'' Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said at the governors' closing news conference.
Some governors had grumbled during the four-day meeting about administration plans to pursue legislation allowing the federal government to seize private property to locate electrical transmission lines when the siting of the lines can't be resolved regionally.
Some also said they were concerned about the cost of new testing requirements in the education bill now before Congress. And they continue to push for more federal help than has been promised to pay for special education.
Whenever the federal government encroaches on traditional areas of state or local authority or requires that states carry out federal rules that cost states money, the governors tend to protest.
There's that natural tendency of states to want more flexibility and there's a natural tendency of the federal government to want to get uniform results,'' said Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton, a Democrat and incoming vice chairman of the NGA. That's a continuing dialogue between the states and the federal government.''
Patton said the task force set up for governors to work with the energy department was a bit more formal than the usual approach to working out delicate issues between the states and the federal government.
This is a little more formal venue because this is a newer subject,'' Patton said. Education and transportation have been around forever. We're getting ourselves educated.''
While there was scattered grumbling at the governors' meeting about new federal requirements, Michigan Gov. John Engler, a Republican, rejected the notion that the Bush administration was expanding federal power over the states, even in the new requirements for school testing.
I don't see in the education measure any loss of local control,'' said Engler, the new NGA chairman. I don't think it's a particularly onerous provision.''
Governors cheered President Bush's announcement several days ago that they would get more flexibility to apply federal insurance money to cover more of the uninsured. They had been seeking that freedom for years.
The governors like to send a message to Washington as a reminder to respect the role of the states and of governors, said Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, chairman of the Republican governors.
``Sometimes they treat governors, when we come down to Washington, as visiting firemen,'' he said.
To regain congressional respect, Ridge said, governors must get involved early with legislation.
We can't show up during conference committee in the last minute,'' he said. It's incumbent upon the governors to be involved. We've got to be involved early, persistently.''
Michigan's Engler said the states' leading role in demonstrating how welfare reform can work is an example of how federalism can be successful.
That approach can work again next year, he said, when Congress must reauthorize the welfare reform law, and can also be applied to Medicaid funding.
``Governors have to be in the middle of that fight,'' he said.
His message to Washington: ``You must remember governors represent just as many families and people as Congress.''
