Western Governors Association

Yeah.

I worked for the governor of Wyoming at the time, and we worked closely with the Western Governors Association at that time.

He was the, the chair of the Western Governors Association, and we worked with governors and, uh, across the West, and we worked with, uh, w- with groups, different interests from all over the country to put together recommendations for how we could improve not just the statutory side, but the implementation through the regulat- regulation as well, uh, of the Endangered Species Act, and it led to a, a number of ideas that, that served as I, I would, I would say the core of Senator Barrasso's bill, and some of those themes have carried over, uh, into Representative Westerman's bill as well, and they were built off of a multi-year effort that involved facilitated, uh, professional facilitators, you know, you know, working through dialogue.

And me, I was, I stepped into a facili- facilitation role, and I am not a professional facilitator, but, [chuckles] but by any means, but, but we all kinda worked together on, on this.

Right.

Like maybe not.

[laughs]

Uh, no, I think it, I think there are about a half a dozen things that w- but, uh, there is a provision in the, in Representative Westerman's bill, which is a carryover provision from Senator Barrasso's bill, which co- goes back to, uh, some recommendations that came out of this Western Governors Association process in the 2015 to '17 timeframe, which ultimately started in, or my favorite restaurant in Cheyenne with a friend of mine writing this down on the back of a napkin.

So WGU is Western Governors University, and we were really developed by the states for the states.

And so 19 western governors from the Western Governors Association got together and decided that they needed a, a flexible model for working adults, that their traditional higher education system was doing great, um, for those, um, who were seeking the education, but they needed an alternative for those who were working adults, needed a flexible model, uh, and so they developed WGU.

So that's kind of our origin name as well.

Uh, fast-forward, uh, we have a partnership with the state of Washington.