Massive wildfires in the U.S. have caused widespread damage in recent decades. The Smokehouse Creek Fire in Texas this year, the Marshall Fire in Colorado in 2021 and a series of fires in California in 2020 that were the worst in the state's history are just a few examples. Over the past few decades, the U.S. has spent more than a billion dollars annually to fight wildfires, including $3.5 billion in 2022.

In the past few years, legislators concerned about this trend have asked utilities to provide disaster mitigation plans. In Washington state last year, bipartisan legislation was enacted that requires utilities to provide wildfire mitigation plans for legislators to review. 

Rep. Kristine Reeves (D) of Washington state joined the podcast to discuss the origin of the legislation in her state and why it's important for legislators to review and understand the steps utilities are taking to reduce the risk of wildfires, particularly in Western states. 

Also joining the podcast was Anne Sherwood, area vice president for wildfire mitigation for Xcel Energy, a utility that operates in eight states. She explained how utilities are using wildfire mitigation plans to try to prevent wildfires and also to better manage the effect on utilities when fires do start. 

Recent polls find that many Americans have declining confidence in higher education, in large part because of the levels of student debt, the cost of college and concerns about uneven student outcomes. 

To better understand these challenges, NCSL formed a Task Force on Higher Education Affordability and Student Outcomes in 2022. The group has now issued its report. The co-chairs of the task force – Senators Ann Millner (R) of Utah and Michael Dembrow (D) of Oregon – talked with us about what they discovered. Also on the show is Austin Reid of NCSL, a federal affairs adviser in the Washington D.C., office, who worked with the task force.

Reid explained the genesis of the task force and the importance of trying to better coordinate the efforts of state government, the federal government and institutions of higher education.

Dembrow and Millner explained how the bipartisan group of legislators on the task force came to understand the importance of a degree of value. The also expressed hope that the task force’s work will lead to greater coordination between state and federal officials.

Resources

• Task Force on Higher Education Report
• Task Force Report: Enhancing the Value of Higher Ed Degrees, NCSL

On this episode, we sat down with two election experts from NCSL to discuss the state legislative races and statewide ballot measures in the Nov. 5 election. 

Ben Williams, NCSL’s associate director of Elections and Redistricting, discussed the 5,508 legislative seats on ballots in 44 states, more than 78% of all legislative seats nationwide. He also explained how the outcomes could affect legislative control in the states, overall state control and veto-proof majorities in some states. 

Helen Brewer with NCSL explained the range of topics covered by the more than 150 statewide ballot measures voters will decide. She discussed the large number of abortion-related measures and others uses such election administration, taxes, criminal justice and education. 

Resources

• NCSL State Elections 2024

This is one of the series of shows this year and next reflecting on the 50th anniversary of NCSL. For this episode, our focus is the legislative institution and how today’s legislatures evolved over the last 400 years.

Guests include historian Pev Squire, who sketches out how legislatures developed both from the colonial assemblies and from the territorial legislatures. We also spoke with three people who have spent considerable time in legislatures and given a great deal of thought to the institution itself— Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie and Raul Burciaga, who recently retired as director of the New Mexico Legislative Council Service. They reflected on where the institution is now and the challenges it will face in the next 50 years. 

Resources

• NCSL Marks 50 Years of Service to State Legislatures, NCSL

Artificial intelligence, most broadly thought of as the use of computer systems to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, is being employed in a wide array of ways, from self-driving cars to health care. But concerns about the potential misuse and unintended consequences of AI is prompting legislatures around the country to study the issue and in many cases, pass legislation.

In 2024, NCSL is tracking more than 400 pieces of legislation related to AI. This year at least 45 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C., introduced AI bills, and 31 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands adopted resolutions or enacted legislation.

Our three guests on this episode offer a look at AI’s legislative impact. Chelsea Canada from NCSL, who tracks state legislation around the country related to AI, is one of our guests and she explained the breadth of the legislation proposed in the states and also noted a trend in some states toward comprehensive AI laws focused on consumer protection.

Our other guests are Sen. Shelley Hughes (R) of Alaska, who worked this year to move a comprehensive bill through the legislature but was unsuccessful. She explained her bill and her hopes for its passage in the next session. 

Our third guest is Colorado Rep. Manny Rutinel (D). He was one of the House sponsors of a successful bill focused on consumer protection and trying to remove discriminatory results from the use of AI. 

Resources

• Artificial Intelligence 2024 Legislation
• Artificial Intelligence 2023 Legislation
• Artificial Intelligence 2019-2022
• Volume of AI Bills Rises, Even as Use of Systems Evolves

A class of drugs that are used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity are becoming increasingly popular as a weight-loss drug. However, the high cost of these GLP-1 drugs—the annual list price is around $12,000—has posed a dilemma for states as they decide whether to cover the drugs in their own state health plans, Medicaid and possibly require private insurers to cover the drugs. 

On this episode, we get perspectives from three people involved in the debate: Kristen Niakan, a pharmacy management consultant with the actuarial and consulting firm Milliman; North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell (R); and Colorado Senator Dafna Michaelson Jenet (D).

Niakan explained the background of these drugs, who's using them, the costs involved, and the insurance coverage landscape across the country. Folwell walked through the decision in his state not to cover GLP one drugs for the state's employee health plan, and also discussed a separate decision in his state to extend coverage of the drugs to Medicaid recipients. Michaelson Jenet discussed her efforts to pass legislation that would've required all private insurance companies and the state Medicaid program in Colorado to provide coverage for the treatment of the chronic disease of obesity and the treatment of pre-diabetes, including FDA approved anti-obesity medication. 

Resources

• Diabetes State Mandates and Insulin Copayment Caps, NCSL
• Employers feel the side effects of drugmaker control over Wegovy, Ozempic costs, Politico
• GLP-1 agonists in Medicaid: Utilization, growth, and management, Milliman
• Impact of anti-obesity medication coverage in the Medicaid and commercial markets
• KFF Health Tracking Poll May 2024: The Public’s Use and Views of GLP-1 Drugs, KFF

Americans of all ages do not score well on surveys of civic knowledge. One recent survey found a large majority of respondents could not pass a basic civics literacy test and another indicated a third of respondents could not name all three branches of government. And testing of eighth graders in the U.S. and other industrialized countries also reported a decline in civics proficiency.

The vast majority of states, however, do require at least one course in civics and every state has some form of civics education. On this podcast, guest Tammy Wehrle, the legislative education and outreach officer in the Wisconsin State Legislature, talked about what she’s learned about the state of civics education.

Wehrle, who was a classroom educator and holds a doctorate, oversees a variety of programs in the legislature that can involve kids as young as 12. She thinks there is real value in young people seeing the legislature from the inside and understanding the range of roles necessary to run the legislature.

Resources

• Civics Education at NCSL
• Senate Scholar Program, Wisconsin State Legislature
• Staff Snapshots | Tammy Wehrle, NCSL

This podcast is the first of several to observe the 50th anniversary of NCSL. The organization has been an integral part of the change in state legislations over the last half century. NCSL provides research to the states on myriad public policy topics, offers a unified voice in Washington where it lobbies on behalf of the states, and serves as a convener of scores of meetings every year in person and virtually to help legislators and legislative staff from across the nation share ideas and solutions. On this episode we track the development of legislatures over the last 400 years and talk with a range of guests about the role of legislatures in the jigsaw puzzle of American governance.

Our guests include political scientist Don Kettl; former NCSL staffer Karl Kurtz; Sabrina Lewellen, assistant secretary of the Arkansas Senate and current staff chair at NCSL; Bill Pound, longtime NCSL executive director; historian Pev Squire, former NCSL staffer Brian Weberg; and Natalie Wood, NCSL’s vice president of policy and research.

Data centers, the increasing use of AI and reindustrialization in some parts of the country are driving a big increase in energy demand that concerns officials at all levels of government. State legislators in particular, are concerned about the ability of their state utilities to meet that growing demand and the effect on the price residential and business customers pay for energy.

We sat down with two experts on data centers to find out what’s coming in the next several years. Our guests are David Porter, vice president of electrification and sustainable energy strategy at the Electric Power Research Institute or EPRI, and Mukul Anand, global director at Johnson Controls dealing with data center cooling and energy management.

Porter explained the range of energy demand scenarios and the very significant demand that will be put on both the generation and transmission of power in the next several years. Anand discussed the work he does to help data centers explore alternative energy sources and find innovative ways to dissipate the extraordinary amount of heat generated by the racks of servers in the centers. He also expects a tremendous increase in power demand and suggests more planning may be needed to be ready. 

Resources

• Powering Intelligence: Analyzing Artificial Intelligence and Data Center Energy Consumption, EPRI

This is the third of a three-episode series exploring the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in legislatures and how it affected state legislative staff. 

We sat down with Jill Reinmuth, staff director for the Office of Program Research in the Washington House; Eric Nauman, principal fiscal analyst for the Minnesota Senate; and Sabrina Lewellen, assistant Secretary of the Arkansas Senate and the current NCSL staff chair. 

The three legislative staff leaders discussed how procedures changed in the aftermath of the pandemic, what they learned personally about leadership and how their staff performed under the extraordinary challenges of the health emergency. 

Resources

• Lessons Learned: Legislative Staff and the Pandemic, NCSL's OAS podcast
• Dr. Melissa Furman on the Pandemic and the Workplace, NCSL's OAS podcast