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July 28, 2008 ... The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) is a national bipartisan organization that serves the legislators and legislative staffs of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and American territories. The organization provides research, technical assistance, and opportunities for policymakers to exchange ideas on the most pressing state issues as well as advocating the interests of state government with Congress and federal agencies. The organization was founded in 1975, and its founding president was then-Massachusetts Senate President Kevin B. Harrington of Salem. Since then however, no Bay State lawmaker has held the top spot in this prestigious group which represents the nation’s 7,382 state legislators. That long dry spell in Massachusetts leadership ended recently when those attending the NCSL 2008 Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, elected Massachusetts State Senator Richard T. Moore, D-Uxbridge, as their new Vice President. Choosing Moore puts the veteran lawmaker on track to being NCSL’s 38th President in 2010-11. Sen. Moore, who has served on NCSL’s 60 member Executive Committee for the past six years, was chosen from a three candidate field that included state representatives from Washington and Tennessee. “I feel especially honored to be chosen from among such a highly qualified group of candidates,” Moore noted, adding, “It makes being chosen by your colleagues from across the nation all the more significant.” Moore now joins an NCSL leadership team headed by North Carolina Democratic House Speaker Joe Hackney, President; Georgia Republican State Senator Don Balfour, President-Elect; and Republican State Representative Donna Stone of Delaware, who becomes immediate Past President. In addition to the legislative leaders, legislative staff officers will be led by Gary Van Landingham, Director of the Florida Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability. In addition to Sen. Moore’s past service on the NCSL Executive Committee, he is co-chair of NCSL’s Task Force on Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness; co-chair of NCSL’s Health Information Technology Champions Project, and co-chair of the Advisory Committee for NCSL’s Trust for Representative Democracy. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of NCSL’s Foundation for State Legislatures and serves on the association’s Health Chairs Project which represents legislators who chair health care related committees in their home legislatures. Sen. Moore serves in Massachusetts as Senate Chairman of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, and is one of the principal architects of the state’s landmark health care reform law. He is currently a primary sponsor, with Senate President Therese Murray, of comprehensive legislation to improve the quality and contain rising costs of health care. In a related effort, Sen. Moore is an active member of the National Governor’s Association’s State Alliance for eHealth, promoting the use of health information technology to improve quality and safety while containing health care costs. Moore was among those who were instrumental in launching NCSL’s “America’s Legislators Back to School” program ten years ago. A recent evaluation of the program, which supports efforts by state legislators to visit schools to explain the important role of state legislatures, found that visits by lawmakers made a positive impact on students and enhances their understanding of civic education. Sen. Moore has been a frequent visitor to local schools and recently sponsored the establishment of a Special Commission on Civic Engagement and Learning aimed at restoring the civic mission of public education of preparing future generations of active citizens. “I am especially proud of the fact that, for the second consecutive year, my Massachusetts colleagues have led the nation in visiting schools to promote the concept of representative democracy,” Moore stated. |
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