NHCSL Convened in Atlanta for Its 2024 Spring Executive Committee and BBA Meeting

NHCSL's Freshmen Members with Sen. Nellie Pou-NJ (C).

NHCSL Executive Director Kenneth Romero (L), Mayor London Breed (C), and Sen. Nellie Pou-NJ (R).

EDA Senior Advisor William Ramos.

Anthony DiMartino(L)from Californians for Safety and Justice, Pew Charitable Trusts' Connie Utada (C) and Rep. Antonio Maestas (R).

Amazon Web Service's Mariana Holliday (L), NHCSL's Guillermo Mena (C), and Google's Lucy Pinto (R)

NHCSL staff (L), Sen. Nellie Pou-NJ (C), BBA Chair Jamie Oldani (R) and Paul Ordal (R).

Topics discussed included the state of the current economy, immigration, and health equity, among others.

Check out the photos of the event here.

ATLANTA, GA — This past weekend, the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (NHCSL) held its 2024 Spring Executive Committee and BBA Meeting, where Hispanic state legislators from all over the country convened to attend policy sessions —including a live-streamed session on health equity with the Quad Caucus— discuss the Caucus’ resolutions, and honor Rep. Pedro Marín for his work in the Georgia legislature over the past 20 years.

The first policy session (you can watch the livestream here), featuring speakers from the Morehouse School of Medicine’s Satcher Health Leadership Institute, opened with keynote remarks from all leaders from the Quad Caucus: Rep. Angela Romero (UT), NHCSL’s President; National Caucus of Native American Caucus of State Legislators (NCNASL) Chair Sen. Mary Kunesh (MN); National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) President Rep. Laura Hall (AL); and National Asian Pacific American Caucus of State Legislators (NAPACSL) Chair Del. Kris Valderrama (MD).

Additionally, NHCSL’s Executive Director, Kenneth Romero, read a letter from Vice President Kamala Harris addressed to the Quad Caucus’ members and leaders.

“An unacceptable number of our people face discrimination and biases when interacting with the healthcare system. We need to keep working to make sure that race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geographical location, among others, are no longer barriers to receiving adequate, often lifesaving care”, stated Rep. Romero.

Immigration was a topic our legislators delved into, with two policy sessions around the topic. First, Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice, led discussion focused on migrants and asylum, offering insights into the complexities of our nation's immigration system.

This session was followed by a conversation with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Blas Núñez-Neto, where he shared insights on border security, immigration reform, and humanitarian concerns,with opening remarks provided by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

This election year is more important than ever for state legislators to understand media consumption habits and maximize their communication efforts. To this end, Tony Hereau, Vice President for Cross-Platform Insights at Nielsen presented his research findings to optimize campaign media strategies for success, including deep insights on local radio’s impact in reaching constituents and the effectiveness of digital campaigns.

For our final policy session, Economist Claudia Sahm, former section chief at the Federal Reserve, gave legislators a deeper understanding on a top issue for Latinos: the current state of our economy.

Furthermore, during the Meeting’s Welcome Reception, NHCSL presented a legacy award to Rep. Pedro Marín (GA) for his service in the Georgia legislature since 2002.

On the final day of the Spring Meeting, the Executive Committee convened to discuss the Caucus’ first resolutions of the year, as well as Texas’ S.B.3 and S.B. 4.

The resolutions moved for ratification of the Caucus at-large include: Resolution 2024-01: Strengthen and Diversify the Educator Pipeline; Resolution 2024-02: Fair Wages for Court Interpreters; Resolution 2024-03: Addressing the Staffing Crisis in the Healthcare Workforce; and Resolution 2024-04: Policies for Wildfire Mitigation, Management and Resiliency.

The National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators will convene again from July 11th to the 13th for its 2024 Summer Executive Committee and BBA Meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona.