U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talked about her Maryland roots and last week?s achievements in Congress on Wednesday as she drew cheers from dozens of Maryland legislators and a standing ovation from more than a thousand state lawmakers from around the nation.
Pelosi grew up in Baltimore, where her father, Thomas D?Alesandro Jr., was mayor and a five-term congressman, but she said, “it all started in the state legislature for our family,” when her father ran for the House of Delegates at the age of 21.
Pelosi told those attending the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures that congressional leaders were “gathering strong bipartisan support” for overhauling the No Child Left Behind law, which she said “is not fair, is not flexible and it is certainly not funded.” The law mandating federal standards for K-12 public schools was President Bush?s landmark education legislation, but Pelosi said, “We?re even thinking of changing the name.”
No Child Left Behind has been extremely unpopular among state and local officials, who say there has been no money to implement its requirements.
Pelosi also talked up increased funding to expand the State Children?s Health Insurance Program, but “we have a big challenge in getting the president to sign the bill.”
She added that the House passed a $6.7 billion increase in funding for Veterans Affairs, the largest spending increase in the agency?s history. It also passed $1 billion to replace equipment for the National Guard and Reserves, which have sent much of it overseas. Gov. Martin O?Malley and other governors complained earlier this year about a lack of heavy equipment and communications gear to respond to emergencies at home.
An estimated 70 Maryland lawmakers are attending the Boston conference, and figures are not available for how many Maryland lobbyists are here as well. Lobbyist Don Murphy, a former Republican delegate, manned a booth of Republicans for Compassionate Access, a group advocating legalizing medical marijuana. The 12 GOP delegates at the conference were “probably the most Republicans I?ve seen at these things,” he said.
“It is a real value to taxpayers,” Murphy added, but he had never attended the conferences when he was in office because he was concerned about constituent reaction.
