PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Lt. Governor Daniel J. McKee was invited to the White House Thursday for a meeting with the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, which oversees the Obama Administration's engagement with state and local officials around the country.
The meeting was hosted by Jerry Abramson, who serves as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. Abramson is a former Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky and long-serving Mayor of Louisville.
McKee, a former Mayor of Cumberland, was among a small group of Lieutenant Governors invited to attend.
The Office of Intergovernmental Affairs is the Administration's liaison to state and local governments. Thursday's meeting served as an opportunity for McKee to build a relationship with the Office on behalf of the state of Rhode Island and to discuss some of the President's policy priorities.
"I was honored to be invited to the White House to the Office that serves as a link between the Administration and state and local governments," McKee said. "We had a valuable discussion about a range of issues that will inform my efforts to build a better Rhode Island."
McKee is scheduled to return Friday from Washington, D.C., where he attended a meeting of the National Lieutenant Governors Association. Shortly after he took office in January, he was appointed by NLGA Chairwoman Nancy Wyman, the Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut, to the Executive Committee as the Democrat-at-Large member in the East Region. He also is co-chairman of the NLGA's State Strategies in Energy Committee and a member of the Education Committee.
Contact: Erika Niedowski, 401-222-1445, erika.niedowski@ltgov.ri.gov