| Chapter 1: | Governors and the National Governors Association (NGA) |
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into four sections, the NGA plays two primary roles for the governors. First, the NGA serves as a lobbying organization through which the governors, representing the various states, can make their collective voices heard in Congress and in the White House. Second, it serves as a policy research office for governors and their states, one which provides information about best practices and innovative policies that have been successfully implemented throughout the nation.
The NGA as a Lobbying Organization
According to the NGA, “NGA policy positions, reflecting governors’ principles on priority issues, guide the association’s endeavors to influence federal laws and regulations affecting states” (NGA Brochure 2006). The NGA’s Office of Federal Relations ensures that the governors’ views are represented in the shaping of federal policy. In a general sense, this can be considered the lobbying arm of the governors and the NGA. The Office of Federal Relations allows the NGA to be the organizing body and primary medium through which the nation’s governors try to influence federal policy as a group. This book focuses entirely on this particular branch of the NGA because of its role in assisting the governors and the states in securing favorable policy outcomes at the federal level.
The NGA, much like the governors and the states themselves, has seen its lobbying influence ebb and flow in relation to the federal government over the years as it has attempted to lobby presidents and Congresses and represent the general interests of the states. Observers (most notably Haider [1974]) have held that the NGA’s importance as a lobbying organization coincided with the rise of the grant-in-aid programs of the 1960s and 1970s. Governors were expected to manage these grants, and the NGAserved as a source of information for the governors as well