Winter committee meeting update.

• Position: Profiling GFOA - Brief Article

Spring-like weather greeted members of GFOA's five standing committees as they convened in Washington, D.C., for the annual Winter Meeting. During the two-day event held January 29-30, committee members addressed a number of policy issues affecting state and local governments, and had the opportunity to interact with their federal government colleagues. This year, the Winter Meeting coincided with President George W. Bush's first State of the Union address. The president focused his remarks and his 2002 agenda on the fight against terrorism and his administration's efforts to enhance homeland security and reinvigorate the national economy. A day after 52 million Americans heard the president's address, GFOA committee members were honored by an analysis of the president's remarks by E.J. Dionne, Jr., a columnist for The Washington Post and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Dionne began his keynote remarks by lauding the work of government finance officers. As a journalist, he acknowledged that his profession depends on treasurers, finance directors, budget managers, and other government professionals to translate complex government policies into everyday language. He emphasized that as policymakers react to war and recession by enacting new spending and structural reforms, it will fall upon GFOA members to perform the hard work of government--balancing budgets, managing investments, and funding new activities.

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks Dionne said the 2000 election wounds were largely forgotten and the emergence of bipartisanship was genuine. The American people, though still wary of war and recession, believed that the country-united as it was in response to the attacks--was largely on the right track. The President recognized this optimism in his State of the Union address. "As we gather tonight, our nation is at war, our economy is in recession, and the civilized world faces unprecedented dangers," he said. "Yet the state of our union has never been stronger.

Dionne said President Bush rallied the nation behind a commitment to not walk away from the battlefield. "Whatever it costs to defend our country," he said, "we will pay it." (2) But Dionne was critical of the president's speech in this regard, arguing that the president refused to ask the country to pay for the war on terrorism. On the contrary, President Bush proposed additional tax cuts in the face of massive new spending. The shame of this, he...