National Conference of State Legislatures

• 1. Introduction

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  The National Conference of State Legislatures operates from two addresses: Denver, Colorado, and Washington, D.C. Founded in 1975, it calls itself a nonpartisan public officials' association of sitting state legislators. The word nonpartisan does real work in that description. Every twelve months, the organization's presidency passes from one party to the other. A Republican holds the office one year; a Democrat holds it the next. How does a lobbying organization sustain a coherent position when its leadership rotates between opponents? And how does an association drawn from fifty separate state legislatures arrive at anything it can call a consensus? The NCSL is considered part of the Big Seven, a group of organizations that collectively represent state and local government before the federal government. Whether the NCSL can genuinely speak for all of those legislators depends on machinery that took decades to develop.

• 2. The Committee Engine

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  Legislators and staff appointed by their home state legislatures fill eight standing committees that run the NCSL's substantive work. The areas covered include budgets and revenue, education, health and human services, and labor and economic development. The other four are law, criminal justice and public safety; natural resources and infrastructure; redistricting and elections; and communications, financial services, and interstate commerce. Twice each year, the full committee membership convenes at two named events: the NCSL Capitol Forum and the NCSL Legislative Summit. At those gatherings, members formally adopt state-federal legislative policies that provide a shared basis for the organization's work. The meetings also function as a structured exchange. A legislator in one state can compare notes with a counterpart from a different region. The question of what has and has not worked on a given issue finds answers this way. The NCSL Capitol Forum alternates between Washington, D.C., and a rotating second location. The Legislative Summit draws the largest gatherings, partly because it falls in summer, when state legislatures are typically in recess. Its location shifts from year to year. Between these two major events, the NCSL maintains community through web seminars, leadership meetings, and shared access to online documents. When an issue cuts across multiple committee jurisdictions, the NCSL turns to a different kind of body with a more limited lifespan.

• 3. Temporary Bodies, Hard Problems

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  A task force at the NCSL draws its membership from 20 to 30 legislators and legislative staff. Members are appointed by the organization's president or staff chair. Unlike the standing committees, a task force is temporary. It exists to work through a specific problem and then dissolves. The issues that call for a task force tend to be complex and politically contentious. Immigration reform and welfare are examples the organization itself names. The current roster of task forces covers agriculture, cybersecurity, energy supply, and immigration and the states. It also extends to innovations in state health systems, insurance, international relations, military and veterans affairs, and state and local taxation. The positions these bodies develop eventually shape what the NCSL tells Congress. Their most direct form is formal policy stances on legislation that would affect the relationship between state and federal authority.

• 4. State Power in Practice

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  The Main Street Fairness Act sits at the center of one of the NCSL's clearest policy commitments. The Act would simplify existing sales tax collection laws by giving states the authority to require all sellers to collect sales and use taxes. That requirement would extend to online merchants, a detail that carries weight in an era of e-commerce. The NCSL estimates that the change would generate billions of dollars for state governments. A second legislative priority is the SAFE Banking Act. That bill would give businesses in the legalized cannabis industry access to mainstream banking and financial services. Federal law currently makes those services difficult for the cannabis industry to obtain. Together these two positions span fiscal policy and social regulation. The NCSL's own language frames its broader mission as 'improving the operations and management of state legislatures,' a description that links the policy agenda to a deeper investment in state institutions as a whole.

• 5. Passing the Gavel

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  Karen McCarthy became the NCSL's first female president in 1994, twenty years after the organization was founded. McCarthy had previously served as a Congresswoman before taking on the role. Four years later, Representative Dan Blue became the first African-American to lead the NCSL, a tenure that ran through the 1998-99 term. The staff chair for that same period was Tom Tedcastle of Florida. More recently, Representative Scott Saiki of Hawaii held the presidency during the 2021-22 term. J.J. Gentry of South Carolina served as staff chair during the same period. Through all of these transitions, Tim Storey has managed the organization's day-to-day operations as chief executive officer. His role provides continuity across the annual change of elected leadership. What makes that continuity possible, in part, is the NCSL's parallel investment in professional staff, organized into a set of affiliated associations with distinct responsibilities.

• 6. The Clerks' Network

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  The American Society of Legislative Clerks and Secretaries was founded in 1943, thirty-two years before the NCSL itself came into existence. Its original purpose was to improve legislative administration and to establish better communication among clerks and secretaries across the United States and its territories. In 1974, the society joined with several other state legislative groups to help create the NCSL. Today, active membership in the society exceeds four hundred principal clerks, secretaries, and legislative support staff.

  The NCSL runs nine professional staff associations in total, of which the American Society of Legislative Clerks and Secretaries is one. Among the society's publications is the International Directory, a booklet printed in English, Spanish, and French. It lists the objectives of clerks' associations from several countries: Mexico, Central America, Canada, South Africa, and Australia. The society's newsletter, the Legislative Administrator, serves as its official publication. The Professional Journal gives members a forum to share expertise on matters shaping their daily work. A research tool called Inside the Legislative Process surveys and documents state legislative procedures in a format designed for use across different legislative units.

  The Joint Canadian-American Clerks' Conference meets biennially in odd-numbered years, alternating its location between Canada and the United States. Attendance is limited to principal clerks and secretaries; if a clerk or secretary cannot attend, their principal assistant may go in their place. The location is set by joint recommendation of the ASLCS Canadian/American Relations Committee and the Canadian Association of Clerks-at-the-Table. That process places Canadian and American legislative professionals on equal footing even in planning the meeting itself.