AWC Delegation advocates for cities in Washington DC

AWC Board President, Karen Rogers; Vice President, Glenn Johnson; Director of State and Federal Relations, Jim Justin and I attended the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference held in Washington DC March 14-18.

Over 100 city officials (including 11 AWC board members), representing 33 cities, attended the conference. The energy and enthusiasm of those attending was evident as we heard from the highest officials in the Obama Administration. From Attorney General Eric Holder, to Secretary of the Dept. of Energy Steven Chu, delegates heard a message of change and "business NOT as usual", as the Obama Administration starts to take form.

Our delegation had the opportunity to meet with Senator Murray and Senator Cantwell on Wednesday afternoon. AWC President Karen Rogers stressed AWC's #1 issue of infrastructure funding and especially the importance of the transportation reauthorization bill. She also discussed AWC's current efforts to develop a more focused federal legislative strategy that is intended to increase the effectiveness of our federal advocacy. The AWC Board has shown its commitment to a larger federal legislative presence by establishing the Federal Legislative Subcommittee (see related article in this Bulletin). Both Senators were engaging and very interested in hearing from the AWC delegation.

I had the pleasure of being invited to attend a conference on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, sponsored by Vice President Joe Biden. About 150 local government representatives and state league/association representatives gathered in the historic Eisenhower Executive Office Building to hear high level agency staff discuss the Recovery Act's implementation strategies that are being developed right now. We were also treated to an inspiring speech by Vice President Biden, who encouraged local officials to take advantage of all the opportunities the Recovery Act will provide to them. He urged officials to continually check the federal website www.recovery.govas new information becomes available almost daily. Vice President Biden urged city officials to, "pick the things that have the biggest bang for the buck, create the most jobs, and make the most sense for your community".
While he repeated several times that transparency and accountability are critical to the success of the act, he also urged local officials to think out of the box and said, "This can't be government as usual".

All in all, this was a great conference!

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