which will need legislative approval in the coming weeks. He then pushed for the need to “enhance efforts to conserve our natural resources and preserve the environment.” The governor did not, however, expand on what environmental conservation actions he would pursue.
Lee also touched on the state's troubled Department of Children's Services, where a recent audit found that the agency has“We need to protect children in our custody and in our state with a better foster care and adoption process,” Lee said. “We need to do these things and many more, but we can never abandon the standard of fiscal responsibility that makes our success possible.”
Sen. London Lamar, a Democrat from Memphis, encouraged Lee to help working and middle class families during his second term and put aside “ideological agendas.” “We hope Gov. Lee’s second term is defined by expanding access to affordable health care, housing and child care; strengthening our public schools, our democracy and state services; and a rejection of the extreme partisanship and division that marked his first term," said the chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus.
A businessman and farmer, Lee handily won reelection last fall in a state that has not seen a Democrat in the top statewide office in more than a decade. His win came after he was the first incumbent governor in about three decades to have no primary opponent.