Washington, DC
March 28, 2003

As reported earlier, President George W. Bush has sent his supplemental request for $74.7 billion for local the Iraq war which includes $1.4 billion for homeland defense to Congress. Conference President Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and our USCM Homeland Security Task Force Chair Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley have expressed appreciation to President Bush for including homeland defense monies in the war request. Mayor O'Malley released our most recent survey statistics indicating cities ... since the war alone ... which began on March 17, are spending $70 million a week. The mayors are concerned that the amount requested is below our mark and the proposal to send the police, fire and emergency personnel monies through the states is a slow and inefficient way of getting money to the nation's first responders. No need to send the first responder monies to State Capitals, our mayors reiterate. They say send it straight to our cities.

The bureaucratic drag of sending the money through the states is a concern elsewhere too. Just this week press reports reflected in Congressional hearings illustrate that of the $500 million allocated by the Office of Domestic Preparedness, nearly two-thirds ... $330 million has not been spent. According to the press accounts only Delaware and Guam have managed to spend the money made available to them. Mayor O'Malley uses this information as he continues to hammer the direct funding issue in the calls we make to Members of Congress and the press conferences on this important issue.

Recently we believe we have some movement. Certainly Congress will not dilly dally with President Bush's request for our troops at war to capture the Nation of Iraq. Speed will be the word in the coming weeks as the amount of money we need for our troops in Iraq increases. We will be pushing for additional direct funds for our cities — large and small.

We are centering on key Senators with city constituencies ... urban and suburban ... and we need your help. We have phones operating now. Please be responsive to our phone calls and faxes as we move forward to secure more homeland security funds that are desperately needed in this period of uncertainty for our economic and homeland security.

Webcast, U.S. MayorVision

As announced at our Winter Meeting we have launched U.S. MayorVision and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and I have done weekly webcasts on the first responder funding. To watch these webcasts you can hit our website at usmayors.org and click on to U.S. MayorVision.

We will continue to do the webcasts throughout the year. Please join us and send us questions during the broadcast and afterwards. Thank all of you who are joining us as our audience grows each week.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

When I heard the news he was gone, my mind went back to the years of Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford ... four consecutive presidencies. Senator Moynihan's ideas permeate those years and every aspect of urban life was and has been affected by what this man thought, wrote or said. This space is too short, to cover this giant ... but his pioneer work and leadership in the early 1990s advancing a more balanced transportation system, and shifting resources toward mass transit was welcomed by The U.S. Conference of Mayors. And with Boston Mayor Ray Flynn as our President we championed the ISTEA legislation and we carry that work forward today as we push for a more balanced transportation system.

On the social issues such as race and family structure, he wrote, he spoke and he stirred people up. He made us think and through the years so many of his critics have come around to the conclusion that his position, though controversial, proved credible.

I had the opportunity to work with him when he served President Nixon in the White House. We were pushing for welfare reform way back then and the Moynihan plan proposed by President Nixon, the Family Assistance Plan (FAP) was probably the best welfare reform legislation ever written. At the White House he was absolutely entertaining and as a young man I couldn't wait to go over there to hear and see him expound. He was alive and fun. The welfare plan got shot down right around Christmas eve that year but at least we tried.

Then later in his early career in the Senate there would be gatherings and we, as the Irish do, along with mayors, would partake of a drink or two and the truth would come forth. Sometimes we had so much truth, we-d have to put him in a cab and all be driven home.

He was so smart it was scary and he was so political at the same time. In an era when all the politicians try to conform to the pollsters on how they vote and yes, even dress, it was a refreshing experience to see him, hear him and just be in his presence. Generations of Americans will benefit from the mind of this one unusual American coming from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Manhattan where he shined shoes in Times Square, worked in his mother's tavern/bar and graduated first in his high school class in East Harlem to rise up and serve four consecutive Presidents making his mark long before his accomplishments for all of us as the Senator from New York.

Mr. Adam Clymer recalled this week in the New York Times Senator Moynihan's comments on November 24, 1963 about President Kennedy's death. "I don't think there's any point in being Irish if you don't know that the world is going to break your heart eventually. I guess we thought we had a little more time. So did he."

Daniel Patrick Moynihan — a thinker, a doer, a fighter for our cities is dead. We are thankful to God for a most unusual man of politics and we hope God will soon send us more politicians like him. We are waiting God. Send us courage. Send us some smarts. Send us some fun. Send us some brilliance. Send us some guts. Soon.

Our thoughts and sincere thanks for his time go out to Elizabeth Moynihan and her children and grandchildren.