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ABSTRACT
This article focuses on intergovernmental councils (IGCs) in the United States in which prominent state-level executive politicians, that is, governors, play a leadership role. In the US case, these IGCs developed out of a desire to facilitate interstate information exchanges and a need for state governments to join forces to protect their autonomy vis-à-vis the federal government. In this latter role, the councils function as lobbyists for state government interests. The research question driving the analysis has to do with impact: what difference do executive-led IGCs make, either vertically or horizontally, in the US federal system? The question of impact is particularly relevant because growing partisan polarization in contemporary federal and state political institutions complicates collective action by states.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. It should be noted that the United States consists of 50 states and 5 territories (American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). The nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., is a federal district. Also, more than 500 federally recognized American Indian tribes and Alaska Native tribes have government-to-government relationships with the United States. According to the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, approximately 56 million acres of land are held in trust by the United States for the tribes, much of which consists of reservations. The largest is the 16 million acre Navajo Nation Reservation which is located mostly in northeastern Arizona, but also includes small portions of northwestern New Mexico and southern Utah.
2. In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court, which hears state vs. state lawsuits, declined to consider the case brought by Nebraska and Oklahoma, thereby allowing Colorado’s marijuana legalization law to stand. The Court provided no explanation for its decision to dismiss the lawsuit.
3. Bednar (Citation2009) includes a fifth safeguard, intergovernmental retaliation, which she cautions is a severe sanction akin to a state’s declaration of secession, one that is best reserved for significant transgressions.
4. In addition to the legislative branch, these organizations also interact regularly with relevant federal executive branch agencies such as, in the case of the Council of Chief State School Officers, the U.S. Department of Education.
5. The CSG served as the secretariat of the NGA and the NCSL for a period of time until each organization had matured sufficiently to hire its own staff. CSG has subsequently functioned as the secretariat for other organizations of state officials.
6. The CSG’s workforce development initiative resulted in the 2015 publication of a research report, A Framework for State Policymakers: Developing Pathways for Ensure a Skilled Workforce for State Prosperity.
7. Recent CSG resolutions to Congress have supported federal transportation funding, the use of data to inform decision-making, the continuation of the Medicaid state–federal partnership, and intergovernmental collaboration on workforce innovation.
8. The Southern Governors Association, the oldest of the regional governors associations, ceased operation as of 1 July 2016, bringing the number of regional groups to five.
9. Another type of gubernatorial organization is the single-issue governors’ association which can emerge over a particular problem or concern that affects a subset of states. See the discussion in Nugent (Citation2009).
10. Texas, Florida, Ohio, Idaho, Maine, and South Carolina are some of the states that have, at times, withheld their NGA dues or pulled out of the organization.
11. In states in which the governor and the legislature are at odds, the legislature may threaten to cease allocating funds for the state office in the nation’s capital.
12. Another executive-based IGC, the National Association of Attorneys General, played an important role in the tobacco settlement.
13. Unless noncompliant states receive extensions from DHS, as of January 2018, federal agencies will not accept driver’s licences from noncompliant states as a form of identification for individuals boarding aircraft or visiting federal facilities that require identification such as military bases.
14. The RGA and DGA devote much of their energies to campaign strategy and fundraising for gubernatorial races.
15. For example, the NGA played a major role in the Reagan Administration’s ‘new federalism’ initiatives that would have shifted responsibilities for several federal programs to the states. See the discussions in Rose (Citation2013) and Jensen (Citation2016).
16. Research by Nolette (Citation201Citation5) found that the National Association of Attorneys General is also experiencing partisan-fuelled position taking by its membership.
17. After the 2016 presidential election, in an effort to influence the new administration’s policy agenda, the NGA sent President-elect Donald Trump a series of recommendations on priority issues such as health care, infrastructure, and tax reform. The recommendations emphasize the need for a cooperative federal-state approach, one that values intergovernmental consultation and insures state flexibility.