By Eugene T. Lowe
March 7, 2011

Mayors walked the halls of the Senate March 3 and visited six Senators who will be pivotal in protecting the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program from cuts in the Fiscal Year 2011 appropriations. With the House of Representatives having passed its FY2011 funding bill (H.R. 1), cutting the CDBG program by 62.5 percent from $4 billion to $1.5 billion, the Conference of Mayors under the leadership of President Burnsville (MN) Mayor Elizabeth B. Kautz has mounted a vigorous lobby effort in defense of the program.

Participating in the Senate lobby visits were Kautz, Past President Akron Mayor Donald L. Plusquellic, Elizabeth (NJ) Mayor J. Christian Bollwage, Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie, Alexandria (VA) Mayor William D. "Bill" Euille, and Conference of Mayors CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran. Visits were made to six Senators, all of whom represented at least one of the mayors participating in the lobby effort: Senator Charles Grassley (IA), Senator Robert Menendez (NJ), Senator Tom Harkin (IA), Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN), Senator Frank Lautenberg (NJ), and Senator Al Franken (MN).

Now that the Continuing Resolution for funding federal programs has been approved by Congress through March 18, the lobby visits by the mayors were timely and valuable in shoring up support for CDBG. As mayors held their meetings with the Senators, negotiations were about to take place in earnest to pass a measure to fund most federal programs for the remainder of the year. Mayors learned that the House-passed bill is likely to be voted on by the Senate during the week of March 7, and that a compromise bill, with fewer cuts than H.R. 1, was being readied for consideration on the Senate floor.

The Senators who were visited are supportive of CDBG, as well as Senator Mary Landrieu (LA), who was not officially visited but in a chance meeting with the mayors in the hall, pledged her support for the program. On the day before the lobby visits, Plusquellic also lobbied his Senator, Rob Portman (OH), to support the program. Plusquellic also joined representatives of the National Association of Counties (NACo) in a meeting on the merits of the CDBG program with the staff of the Speaker of the House, Representative John Boehner (OH).

Lobbying will continue over the next two weeks on FY2011 appropriations, with additional visits and meetings with Senate members. Several mayors are scheduled to come to the Capitol next week to continue to lobby in support and defense of CDBG. The National League Cities (NLC) during its legislative meeting will host a CDBG event on Capitol Hill on March 16 at 10:00 a.m. with the Conference of Mayors and the National Association of Counties participating.