Rep. Karen Shepherd tells Utah lawmakers national health care reform and economic package are priorities

Congresswoman Karen Shepherd addressed the Utah House on Feb. 10, 1993, urging bipartisan engagement on an upcoming federal economic package and asking state lawmakers to support a $200 million school trust lands bill.

Shepherd outlined two principal goals for the federal effort: creating jobs and raising earnings. She described four components of the plan: a short-term stimulus, long-term infrastructure investment (roads, water and sewer systems), deficit reduction, and national health-care reform. "The first goal is jobs. The second goal is increases in salary... A more productive workforce, a higher quality of life," she said.

On the size of the short-term stimulus, Shepherd said the debate was active and that proposals would fall "somewhere between 10 and 30,000,000,000" dollars. She framed health-care reform as a necessary element of deficit reduction, saying, "There will be National Healthcare reform. There is absolutely not a shred of doubt that that will happen and that will happen this year." She told members the nation's health-care costs were unsustainable and described reform as essential to balancing the federal budget.

Shepherd also urged support for a school trust lands bill that would provide roughly $200,000,000 for Utah schools and asked legislators to help sell the measure to colleagues in Congress. During a short question period she acknowledged concerns about federal rules under the Endangered Species Act and said she would investigate ways to make regulations "more possible to live with," and that she planned to discuss the matter with Secretary Babbitt and staff.

Shepherd closed by inviting Utahns to contact her district office with input and to work across party lines on the national package. Her remarks were recorded by motion and ordered spread on the House Journal.