National Governors Association Chair Jack Markell (D-DE) and Vice Chair Mary Fallin (R-OK) outlined the group’s agenda for the 2013 Winter Meeting, an annual meeting in which a bipartisan group of U.S. governors gathers in Washington, D.C. to discuss issues affecting the states. Governors Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), and Alejandro Garcia Padilla (D-PR) also spoke. Topics included how possible sequestration budget cuts would affect states and the input and flexibility that governors need to address cuts to state programs.
“Sequestration,” a legal procedure in which every federal agency has the same percentage of its budget taken back in order to cut deficit spending, was agreed to in the Budget Control Act of 2011 and scheduled to happen on March 1, 2013.