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Arkansas municipal leaders met with Congressmen during National League of Cities Conference.
By John K. Woodruff, League Staff
WASHINGTON, D.C.-"Don't cut! Don't move!" That was the mantra that Arkansas delegates along with about 2,400 other municipal offical delegates took to their Congressmen during the March 11-15 National League of Cities (NLC) Congressional City Conference. Many of those city officials wore "Save CDBG" buttons as they urged their senators and representatives not to enact cuts in the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program as President Bush has recommended in his budget for next fiscal year; and delegates appealed to Congress not to move the CDBG program from Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to the Department of Commerce. Prompt feedback came to the Arkansas group as they learned that Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor both had signed a letter asking that the Senate Budget Committee maintain the federal government's commitment to community development programs at HUD and support a $4.742 billion budget allocation. The letter was dated March 2 to U.S. Sens. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), chairman of the Budget Committee, and Ken Conrad (D-N.D.), ranking member of the Budget Committee. The non-partisan letter was sent jointly by the NLC, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Association of Counties and the National Community Development Association. Neither Lincoln nor Pryor attended the Arkansas Municipal League Luncheon to which they were invited at noon on City Lobby Day. A few delegates met later that afternoon with Pryor's legislative director, Walter Pryor, when Pryor, who had hoped to meet with League officials, had to appear on the Senate floor for a vote. The luncheon, held at the Madison Building of the Library of Congress, however, drew the remainder of the state's legislative delegation, Congressmen Marion Berry (D), 1st Dist., Vic Snyder (D), 2nd Dist., John Boozman (R), 3rd Dist., and Mike Ross (D), 4th Dist. Berry spoke at the luncheon of President Bush's fiscal 2006 budget as "horrendous," and told the Arkansas municipal officials, "There's not hardly anything good in it." He said cities likely would "get an unfair share of the burden." "We keep you all in mind, your needs and concerns," Berry said and quipped, "I like your button," to a wearer of the "Save CDBG" button. Berry, hearing cities' priorities, said "we passed ours" in reference to the Transportation Reauthorization bill. Snyder predicted "a ground swell" for saving the CDBG program. He also urged that when issues as the CDBG program and other such issues arise in Washington, city officials should call their congressmen immediately. "If you wait a day or two, it may be too late." Snyder, too, was concerned about the proposed Bush administration's fiscal policies. "Heavy borrowing will come home to roost," he said. Boozman said he supported CDBG but expressed stronger words of support for the Transportation Reauthorization, which he hopes will be eventually approved by Congress in a greater amount than the House had approved. He noted that for every $1 billion approved in the bill, 47,000 jobs are created. North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Henry Hays stressed the need for public transportation. Boozman is a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Ross, who attended the League reception March 14 at the Washington Hilton and invited all the delegates to a breakfast the next morning, expressed at the breakfast and luncheon his concerns about shifting program burdens such as Medicaid from the federal government to the states. He said cutting one third from the CDBG funding as proposed "makes absolutely no sense to me." He said he planned to oppose the President's budget. Walter Pryor in Sen. Pryor's office later stressed to a few city officials, "we have no beef with your priorities." The reference was to the NLC's priorities of the CDBG program, the Transportation Reauthorization, the Section 8 Housing Voucher Program and funding first responders in Homeland and Hometown Security.
Saving CDBG, transportation were among top municipal priorities that Arkansas delegates took to Congress
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