Executive Director's Column

February 10, 2011
Washington, DC

As U.S.Mayor goes to press, the House Republicans are slashing away, one group trying to out-cut the other. House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers intended to release a bill with substantial cuts to fund the government through a continuing resolution after March 4. Tea Party pressures on freshman members caused the new members to balk and this action forced the committee to go back and find more cuts. Their goal is to cut $100 billion from the President’s budget. Presently, the list of cuts is not specific enough for us to determine the depth of the exact cut for the CDBG program or any other priorities.

President’s Budget - Monday, February 14

As reported to all mayors we were notified of the Administration’s request of a 7.5 percent cut of the HUD Community Development Block Grant by the Obama Administration last weekend on a White House call and in an op ed piece published in last Sunday’s New York Times authored by OMB Director Jacob Lew.

This notice comes one week before the President releases his budget on Monday, February 14. Mayors are disappointed by the President’s cut and now know that CDBG is on the chopping block. This federal investment we have had since 1974, over 36 years ago, is being threatened and the chance of annihilation of the program is the highest since its inception.

The fate of this federal investment, which continues to bring economic vitality to our cities, is now in the hands of the mayors, city council members, and the county officials of our nation.

As your CEO and Executive Director, I want to assure our members and non-members alike, we will use every force we can muster to stop further budget cuts from the CDBG program. The National League of Cities and The National Association of Counties are standing with us as they did when we worked to establish CDBG.

As we go forward, we will need an all out effort to reach our local and national allies from the business community, religious, civic, and non-profit organizations.

We thank all of you for the tremendous response we are receiving since we notified you of the Administration’s cut last weekend. Everyone has to do what they have to do. And we will do what we know how to do. We will fight to save CDBG with the leadership of President Elizabeth Kautz of Burnsville, Vice President Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, and Second Vice President Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, and the mayors of this nation, we will prevail.

Again thank you for following up on our requests for action and please pay close attention to our future calls for action as the new Congress is experiencing political turbulence not seen or experienced in modern history. We must be and we will remain agile and mobile, and with your help, your strength, your action, we will win for our cities, our counties, and above all, our people to protect CDBG the successful federal investment that Washington must continue. With the cutbacks in our own cities, the cutbacks coming from the states and the jobless recovery, now is the absolute worst time ever to cut this needed flow of economic development funds back to our cities. We must not let it happen.