03/13/09 Lawton Meets with Obama Administration Officals and Nation's Top Economists
3/13/2009
March 11, 2009 – National Lieutenant Governor’s Association (NLGA) winter meeting in Washington D.C.
Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton traveled to Washington D.C. to chair a series of high-level meetings with senior Obama Administration officials and the nation’s top economists at the NLGA winter meeting held from March 11 to March 13, 2009.
Lawton led a meeting with the Economic Advisor to the Vice President, Dr. Jared Bernstein, on the Obama Administration’s Middle Class Economic Policy. The delegation of lieutenant governors met with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan. Lawton also received a briefing on the nation’s economy by the man the Wall Street Journal calls “the de facto chief economist to Congress,” chief economist and cofounder of Moody’s Economy.com Mark Zandi.
Mr. Zandi’s message to the group was that the economic downturn “this is not a one year problem.” He urged the nation’s lieutenant governors to invest in their state priorities and, “make the hard decisions now to position yourself for the next 3 to 4 years.” He also noted that the Obama Administration’s policy response is “going to work.”
In addition, Lawton led meetings with the Vice-Chair of General Electric John Rice, the Ambassador of Japan Ichiro Fujisaki, the Ambassador of Mexico Arturo Sarukhan, International Economist Thea Lee of the AFL-CIO, and Trade Policy Director Daniel Griswold.
Job creation, economic development, transportation funding, opportunities for Wisconsin schools in the stimulus bill, health care plans, and Medicaid were the top items of discussion.
Left) Lt. Governor Lawton and GE Vice-Chairman John Rice.
Lt. Governor Lawton is the chair of the National Lieutenant Governors Association. As chair, she focused the organization on bringing jobs and strengthening economic development in the states and building opportunities with an expanded network of international relationships.
Lawton authored and passed the NLGA resolution titled, Smart Power Public Diplomacy: Using Citizen Diplomacy to Strengthen U.S World Standing. She also authored and passed the Resolution In Support of Economic Development Dialogue with Mexico that formalized that the NLGA commit to a three-year program as part of a strategic state alliance partnership with the USAID and NLGA’s secretariat The Council of State Governments (CSG).
Left) Lt. Governor Lawton with former National Endowment for the Arts Chair, Frank Hodsell, former Ambassador to the Netherlands, Cynthia Schneider and businessman/artist/author Peter Buffett.
