Published: 07-18-07
(Williamsburg Virginia) - Delegates to the 61st Annual Meeting of the Council of State Governments’ Southern Legislative Conference (SLC) today elected Texas Senator Jeff Wentworth R-San Antonio chair-elect of the Conference. He is the first Texas Senator to serve as an SLC officer since 1985.Delegates from SLC’s 16 member states unanimously elected the Texas senator to succeed Senator Julia C. Howard of North Carolina who was elected SLC chair. South Carolina House of Representatives Speaker Bobby Harrell was elected vice chair of the Conference.
“I am both honored and humbled to be chosen chair-elect of the Southern Legislative Conference particularly since it has been more than 20 years since a Texas senator has served as an SLC officer” said Senator Wentworth. “Sharing information about state and federal issues with delegates from other states has been invaluable for me as a Texas state senator. I am looking forward to welcoming SLC delegates to San Antonio October 26-29 for the 2007 Fall Meeting.”
Senator Wentworth is a member of the National Executive Committee of the Council of State Governments. He previously chaired the Border Legislative Conference which is a joint project of the Council of State Government’s Western Office and SLC to develop a self-sustaining program aimed at establishing ongoing dialogue among state legislators on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border.
As SLC chair-elect Senator Wentworth will assist the chair in guiding the general activities of the Conference. On Monday July 16 he presided over a plenary and legislative luncheon featuring a presentation by Representative Jim Guest of Missouri and Senator Larry Martin of South Carolina on Federal REAL ID Legislation: Financial Implications for States. Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich addressed the plenary opening session on Monday. He spoke about Winning the Future.
Today’s closing plenary featured a talk by Dr. William M. Kelso Director of Archaeology for the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities on The Buried Truth an examination of the discoveries from the excavation at the 1607 James Fort site.
