Membership Monthly – July 2024

The nation’s Governors met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the NGA Summer Meeting. President Zelenskyy participated in a private meeting with Governors before delivering an address to all attendees.

His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan also spoke with Governors, offering insights into the present situation in the Middle East region.

During the 2024 NGA Summer Meeting, 2023-2024 NGA Chair Utah Governor Spencer Cox shared the top takeaways from his year-long NGA Chair’s Initiative Disagree Better campaign and unveiled study results indicating the initiative’s message is effective in reducing polarization among voters. Governor Cox featured a new video sharing highlights about the Disagree Better initiative.

Governor Cox also welcomed several speakers to highlight details about the Disagree Better campaign, including University of Florida President and former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse (pictured below left) and author and actor Matthew McConaughey (pictured below center).

To help further the Disagree Better initiative, Governor and Mrs. Cox led a service project (pictured below right with Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey) with United Way Salt Lake to stuff 3,000 backpacks with school supplies and handwritten notes for children in Utah.

At the Summer Meeting, Governor Polis announced his NGA Chair’s Initiative, Let’s Get Ready: Educating All Americans for Success. The initiative is designed to support Governors and states to drive innovation, bolster capacity to measure what works and what doesn’t, and prepare students for successful futures and the economy for greater success. The initiative will address challenges like workforce shortages, skills mismatch, and widening opportunity gaps that limit true economic mobility for Americans.

The Council of Governors convened at the Summer Meeting to meet with Department of Defense (DoD) officials to discuss strategic guidelines for the Defense Fiscal Year 2026.They also continued to press DoD to discontinue the legislative proposal (LP480) that would weaken or eliminate Governor authority over the National Guard and threaten readiness and operational efficacy of their units. (Pictured: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon participating in the meeting.)

Representatives from multiple federal agencies held meetings with Governors’ staff members to focus on coordination between state and federal policy priorities. Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee (pictured) also held meetings with representatives from three of the agencies to focus on several areas where the state of Rhode Island is coordinating policy initiatives and funding priorities with these agencies. 

Throughout the Summer Meeting, Governor and Mrs. Cox showcased the state of Utah’s people, culture and natural beauty. Pictured here, several Summer Meeting attendees hiked Donut Falls in Big Cottonwood Canyon prior to the official start of the meeting.

During the Summer Meeting, First Lady Abby Cox convened the nation’s First Spouses to focus on plans Virginia First Lady Suzanne Youngkin and New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy are leading to encourage Governors and First Spouses to help mark August 21 as National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day and August 31 as International Overdose Awareness Day.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin joined the convening, speaking with First Spouses to highlight the work Mrs. Youngkin and his administration have been leading to address overdose prevention, including through the One Pill Can Kill campaign. Mrs. Murphy also discussed work she has been leading along with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s administration, including through ReachNJ, noting plans she’s leading with Mrs. Youngkin to mark the upcoming August awareness days.

Mrs. Youngkin and Mrs. Murphy plan to contact First Spouses in the coming weeks to invite Governors’ offices to mark the upcoming August awareness dates through simple acts like lighting Governors’ mansions purple and using social media to share educational resources about fentanyl prevention.

NGA Chair Colorado Governor Jared Polis and Vice Chair Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt issued this statement condemning Saturday’s terrible act of violence.

During the Summer Meeting, NGA Chair Colorado Governor Jared Polis and NGA Vice Chair Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt conducted an interview with MSNBC to highlight the bipartisan leadership of Governors. Watch the interview here.

NGA created a new YouTube playlist to feature video footage of the public sessions Governors held during the 2024 NGA Summer Meeting. Click here to learn more about the public sessions and to view the videos.

The Senate recently released draft text for the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The bill supports a total of $923.3 billion in FY25 funding for national defense, authorizing $878.4 billion for the Department of Defense and $33.4 billion for national security programs within the Department of Energy. The NGA Public Health and Disaster Response Task Force created a memo comparing state impacts in the Senate text to the House text. The memo can be accessed here.

NGA leadership released a statement urging Congress to pass a bipartisan reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). Read the full statement here.

NGA released the publication Public Health Emergency Playbook. Designed for Governors and their staff, the guide offers a comprehensive resource to help prepare for, manage and recover from health crises across a range of health emergencies, including natural disasters, infectious disease outbreaks, industrial accidents and human-caused disasters.

NGA and the National Association of State Energy Officials are conducting a series of webinars on various aspects of the comprehensive state energy planning process. Each video focuses on a specific aspect of the comprehensive energy planning process. The most recent video is now available here. The full series can be found here.

Last month, several Governors and NGA participated in the 2024 SelectUSA Investment Summit. Governors pictured (front row L to R): NGA Chair Colorado Governor Jared Polis, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Guam Governor Lou Leon Guerrero, (back row L to R) NGA Vice Chair Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb. 

This month, the National Archives Foundation published a newsletter about the history of the U.S. territories. The Governors of the five official territories – American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands – are members of NGA. Learn more about the U.S. territories here.

Hawai‘i Governor Josh Green recently helped host more than 2,200 delegates for the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC). This year’s FestPAC was held in Hawai‘i for the first time in the festival’s 52-year history. This event is the world’s largest celebration of indigenous Pacific Islanders and brought together 25 nations from across the Pacific.