ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- If at first you don't succeed . . .
Gov. Mike Leavitt is set to try and try again. The Utah governor, who will assume the chairmanship of the National Governors Association on Tuesday, is set to unveil an ambitious policy agenda for the coming year. At the top of his list will be the familiar issue of federalism, more commonly referred to as states' rights."Federalism will be a big part of it," Leavitt told the Deseret News. "A lot of progress has been made, but it has been small and incremental. And the most serious progress has been made by the courts, not by what the governors have done."
Not that the governors haven't helped. Leavitt said it was the collective political will of the governors that forced Congress to back off on mandates that left the states paying the price tag for federal legislation -- the so-called unfunded mandate problem.
Leavitt arrived here Friday to prepare for a series of meetings on topics ranging from high tech and education to trade and tourism. The annual four-day National Governors Association gathering officially starts Saturday and will feature President Clinton, Colin Powell and the ambassadors to and from Canada, among other political and policy heavyweights.
But it is the constitutional right of states to determine their own course without interference from the federal government that has Leavitt giddy about his new role in the national limelight.
For years, Leavitt -- the former chairman of the Republican Governors Association and the Western Governors Association -- has been trumpeting the issue of federalism in an effort to return more political power to the states, thereby returning the balance of power between states and the federal government to the equal partnership model envisioned by the founding fathers. Under the current system, Leavitt says states have become subservient to federal mandates.
Leavitt organized national meetings on the issue to generate support for a "Conference of the States" -- a precursor of sorts for constitutional amendments affirming state primacy on all issues not specifically designated to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution. That proposal withered under opposition from an odd coalition of liberal groups, labor unions and the far right.
That defeat does not mitigate the need for more balance between the states and federal government, Leavitt said, although a resurrection of the Conference of the States is unlikely at this point. The battle for balance will now be fought in the courts, Congress and with the president.
As chairman of the National Governors Association, Leavitt believes hewill be uniquely situated to carry the federalism torch, and he believes he has the unqualified bipartisan support of his colleagues. And the political weight of the nation's governors is something not taken lightly in Congress.
"One issue we share a concern over is pre-emption," Leavitt said, referring to federal laws that specifically prohibit states from doing certain things.
"It's a relatively new phenomenon not unlike unfunded federal mandates but with a different philosophic bent that prevents states from defining their own directions and innovating policies suited to the needs of individual states."
Leavitt said there are more than 150 pieces of federal legislation now before Congress that contain language pre-empting states' rights in some form or another.
Leavitt believes the U.S. Supreme Court's recent rulings in three cases have "redefined a new era of federalism" that signal a restoration of state and local power. In one case, the high court struck down a lawsuit brought by Maine state employees seeking to enforce a federal labor law on overtime, ruling states are immune from being sued in federal courts and from state court lawsuits seeking to enforce a federal right.
In a Florida case, the court struck down a federal law that allowed people to sue states for patent infringements in federal court, and in another Florida case the court reaffirmed state sovereignty, ruling it was immune from federal court lawsuits attacking a program that allowed families to save for the cost of attending state public colleges and universities.
Leavitt said average citizens may not have heard much about the cases, but the governors have watched them closely as a harbinger of the court's attitude toward states' rights. "These three rulings are classics, making it clear that states have a historic and full role in this republic and that states' roles must be considered," he said.
States' rights will not be the only issue on Leavitt's agenda. He will introduce his Enlibra environmental doctrine, seeking to have it become a nationwide policy for resolution of environmental conflicts. Enlibra is largely an effort to resolve conflict through negotiation rather than litigation.
And Leavitt has been asked to make a presentation on Envision Utah, the public-private growth planning partnership he spearheaded. "Growth has become such an important issue around the country, and people are very interested in how we are addressing it in Utah," he said.
Leavitt's rise to chairmanship of the politically powerful organization comes after years of working within it. He started in 1994 when, as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, he was asked to participate in a White House task force on welfare reform.
That task force lead to "substantial changes in the way things operate when it comes to welfare," and it extended more authority to states than ever before, he said.
"It became obvious to me that if we wanted a fundamental change in the way welfare works in Utah then we had to change the way it is done in Washington," Leavitt said.
Leavitt says his chairmanship of the National Governors Association will help Utah by putting him in the middle of policy discussions that are redefining how states operate and because it builds relationships with other national and state leaders who can "help get things done for the state."
The conference officially begins on Saturday and continues through Tuesday when Leavitt takes office.