By Paul Bean
Governor Phil Scott will attend the National Governors Association Winter meeting in Washington, D.C. this week, where he is expected to meet President Trump.
In addition to meetings with other governors and diplomats, on Saturday Governor Scott, who serves as co-chair of the NGA Public Health and Disaster Response Task Force, will lead a discussion with Hawaii Governor Josh Green on border security with the National Guard Bureau and Department of Homeland Security.
While in D.C., Governor Scott will also participate in a meeting of the New England governors. He will also join fellow governors for a meeting with President Trump and other officials at the White House on Friday.
President Trump announced Tuesday his appointments to the Council of Governors, “a bipartisan group of state leaders tasked with strengthening state-federal partnerships on key national security, disaster response, and military coordination issues.”
Appointed members included Ron Desantis (FL), Kathey Hochul (NY), Gretchen Whitmer (MI), and Josh Shaperio (PA)
The White House says, “The Council of Governors was established by the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 and formally created by Executive Order 13528 in 2010. It serves as a key forum for governors and federal officials to enhance collaboration on disaster response, National Guard operations, and military integration within the states.”
Governor Phil Scott, who was appointed by President Biden to serve a two-year term on the council of Governors, was not appointed for another term but is still serving as The Public Health and Disaster Response Task Force co-chair.
“We don’t have a direct line to the White House as you might imagine, even as a Republican Governor, particularly because of some of the statements that I’ve made,” said Governor Scott in yesterday’s press conference in a response to a question from Kevin McCallum of Seven Days. “Having said that, we have had some dialogue with them. They’ve forewarned us about certain things over the last month or so. So, that’s a start, and we’ll continue to try and foster that. I believe the best approach is to be reasonable, take the emotion out of it, and try to deal with whatever comes our way. Much like we do when we’re experiencing an event, a pandemic, a flood, or any other type of emergency.”
Senator Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch have been extremely critical of the new Trump Administration, Bernie Sanders writing on X, “The Founding Fathers of this country created the longest standing democracy on earth and millions of Americans fought and died to preserve it. Trump is betraying their vision and moving us to authoritarianism,” and Welch saying he’s on a “illegal rampage.”
When asked if some of the rhetoric coming from our federal delegation is counterproductive, Scott said, “They’re accomplished politicians. They’ve earned their right to be to be in the positions they’re in, but that wouldn’t be my style, it’s just different, and I hope at some point that there’d be finding ways to work together on whatever might issues might come along, because they can’t be opposed to everything that they’re doing. There’s gotta be a path forward, and I just see this being a long four years if we’re going to set this up, and have so much controversy. It’s not healthy, it’s just not healthy,
At last year’s NGA winter meeting Governor Scott led a discussion with Hawaii Governor Josh Green on disaster recovery and response. As Governors of two small states that suffered major environmental disasters, they both shared their experience and the response from FEMA and how they could improve. “The fact is, in this day and age, if they haven’t already, every single Governor is going to experience some sort of significant emergency, and it feels like they’re increasing in frequency,” said Governor Scott in the meeting. The meeting also included FEMA officials and other Governors.