ATLANTA— House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) today announced the appointment of state Representative Penny Houston (R-Nashville) to the Southern Legislative Conference (SLC) Fiscal Affairs & Government Operations (FA&GO) Committee. As the presiding officer of the Georgia House of Representatives, Speaker Ralston is charged with selecting members to represent Georgia within SLC.
“I am grateful for the confidence the Speaker has shown in me by appointing me to this position,” said Rep. Houston. “This position on the SLC committee will allow me to learn from other southern states.”
The Fiscal Affairs & Government Operations Committee is one of six SLC standing committees. According to SLC, the committee focuses on fiscal issues that impact state budgets and finances. In the current era of depleted budgets and dwindling revenues, members of the FA&GO Committee learn from experiences of their Southern state counterparts to devise strategies in their own states. The Committee’s membership includes many of the finance and appropriations chairs from across the South along with other prominent fiscal players, both legislators and legislative staff, in the different state legislatures. The Committee has most recently studied the impact of the federal budget on state finances; revenue forecasting in the 15-member states; health care reform; state fiscal trends; performance-based budgeting; e-commerce and taxation; the future of Medicare; implications of Social Security Trust Fund reforms; and the impact of large bank mergers in Southern states. In an effort to educate the committee on the relationship between the South and the Federal Reserve Bank, the Committee has featured presentations on national and regional economic trends from the presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta, Dallas and St. Louis.
Founded in 1947, the Southern Legislative Conference is the largest of four regional legislative groups operating under the Council of State Governments. The 15 SLC member states are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. By working together within the SLC and participating on its committees, Southern state legislative leaders are able to speak in a distinctive, unified voice to address the issues that affect their states and the greater region.
For more information about SLC and its Fiscal Affairs & Government Operations Committee, please click here.
Representative Penny Houston represents the citizens of District 170, which includes all of Berrien, and Cook Counties, and portions of Tift County. She was elected into the House of Representatives in 1997, and currently serves as the Chairman of Subcommittee of Appropriations. She also serves on the Banks & Banking, Budget and Fiscal Affairs Oversight, Economic Development & Tourism, and Ways & Means committees.
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