By Larry Jones
June 23, 2003

Commenting on what can be done to help local governments after Congress dropped $4 billion earmarked for local fiscal relief from the recently enacted tax bill, Representative Charles B. Rangel (NY), Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee, told mayors "Our cities are in trouble for a variety of reasons. Rangel added, "In Congress, we have the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Rural Caucus. But when you find $4 billion being lost in conference committee in the middle of the night, you need a Congressional City Caucus." To help sensitize members to the needs of cities, he said he would soon introduce a resolution to bring together members of the House of Representatives, both Republicans and Democrats and those who represent suburban and metropolitan areas to work closely with the Conference in the years ahead.

Rangel pointed out that some in Congress truly believe the smaller the federal government, the better the federal government. He explained that the exciting tax cuts that the Administration is giving out will be paid for by borrowed money. "And the worse thing about borrowing money when you have a close to $2 trillion debt is the interest that you pay on that money," he added. Further, he pointed out that economists claim that in the next decade the interest on the national debt could be larger than the amount in the federal budget for all discretionary programs.

The more money that's used to pay the interest on the debt will mean less money for programs that help cities and their residents. He added, "this means the programs won't be there. But also for you, the base services that we-re suppose to provide won't be there to support the homeless, the jobless and the kids that get into trouble. And the closings of the clinics, the firehouses, the police departments won't be at the White House or the Capitol, it will be at city hall."

On assisting local governments, Rangel said "I think it is so important for us to think about revenue sharing, think about direct funding and think about really getting the economic engines of our country going again in our cities by creating jobs and making certain that we don't forget our bridges, our tunnels, our roads our schools and our hospitals." He explained that it should be abundantly clear to everyone that states are not the proper funnel to deal with the cities problems, as we learned from New York City following 9/11.

Rangel asked mayors to start thinking about the names of members who represent their cities and the surrounding suburbs so at some point they can be contacted and urged to join the Congressional City Caucus. As a caucus, he said "we will be better able to understand your priorities. With the economic hemorrhages that our city are going through, this is not the time just to talk about what's going on. The biggest lobbyists you have in Congress that are effective are the members elected to that body. And it's going to be up to you to make certain that they are there representing your interests."