Walton County Commissioners advocate for County priorities at the White House

Commissioners discussed key issues facing Georgia residents 

Walton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Kevin Little and Commissioners Mark Banks and Timmy Shelnutt joined more than 100 Georgia county leaders at the White House for a day of meetings with key administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue, and Senator David Perdue.

County commissioners heard from federal departments and agencies, including the Small Business Administration, Energy, Transportation, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Housing and Urban Development. They discussed how federal policies impact Georgia counties and residents. Topics included the opioid epidemic, workforce housing, infrastructure, natural disaster preparations, and health care reform, along with the latest developments at Plant Vogtle and the Georgia Ports expansion.

“We were honored to be invited by the White House to discuss Walton County’s priorities,” said Little. “We will follow up with the officials we met and continue to discuss how we can work with the federal government to serve Walton County residents. I appreciated having the chance to share the challenges and opportunities we face at the local level with our federal officials. Policies at the federal level have real consequences in our counties, and we want to make sure we work with the administration to inform those policies.”

Prior to the White House meeting, county leaders and ACCG (Georgia’s County Association) participated in a federal policy briefing at the National Association of Counties.

The group discussed tax reform, the federal budget, infrastructure, economic development, and other legislative activity on Capitol Hill.  The group also enjoyed an open house held at the USDA headquarters.

Georgia commissioners were the ninth group of county officials to attend such an event. County leaders from Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, and West Virginia were invited to the White House earlier this year.