Washington, DC
August 5, 2005

MTBE/Energy Bill

The United States Conference of Mayors scored a great victory this past week in stopping a huge unfunded mandate of clean up costs of MTBE, the gas additive that threatens our groundwater and drinking water. Industries were cutting all kinds of deals in the last few days in the negotiations of the energy bill. These industries were trying to get an exemption from liability costs they will have due to the MTBE harm to our water. If they had prevailed and won on this point, then cities would have been stuck with a huge unfunded mandate and the oil industry would have been off the hook. But we beat them. We won. Our efforts, thanks to all of you who responded, and the leadership of our officers in staying the course, have stopped a future federal mandate that would’ve cost our cities millions of dollars. This is an example of why we need more cities as our members. It isn’t always about getting grants and new federal money. In this case, it was about us defeating the oil industry and Members of Congress who were trying to shift those costs down on you, further depleting your challenged budgets.

Conference President Beverly O’Neill issued a statement urging President Bush to sign the bill and she thanked profusely all mayors and Members of Congress in stopping this huge unfunded federal mandate that was about to be dropped down to you from Washington.

Finally, Congress and The White House came together to pass the $286.4 billion bill. Conference President O’Neill continued, even before she became President, to push Congress to pass the needed transportation bill to assist cities in the development of new transportation infrastructure as well as confronting the deferred maintenance of key transportation infrastructure located in cities, large and small, throughout our nation.

The challenge of course, as it has always been, is to make sure that billions of dollars going to the 50 state highway departments are distributed more fairly. We are asking for a “fair share” distribution system of state transportation funds that takes into account the economic impact and economic need of cities. Cities in metropolitan areas must have modernized transportation systems to move people, goods and services because it is this combination that drives the economic force of each states’ economy. And in some metro areas, a city metro economic force touches multiple states such as new Louisville, which has an economic force that touches both Kentucky and Indiana.

In Long Beach at our Leadership Meeting September 22-25, we will be discussing and developing strategies for mayors, as they must be most attentive to the money that Washington is sending to the state houses. Some state DOTs get it; some don’t. We must share and learn as we push for nothing more than our fair share to keep our economies at the local level strong and thus keeps our national economy strong.

Conference President Beverly O’Neill has asked that we update the USCM National Action Plan on Homeland Security that was adopted immediately after 9/11.

Mayors continue to express concern that the homeland security distribution system is flawed in that the homeland security funding does not come directly to our first responders in cities across the nation.

Recently, the new Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced a new direction, a new set of priorities for our Homeland Security Department we supported when it was created.

Today, transit security and port security, are two issues that are front and center. With the transit bombings in Madrid, Moscow and twice in London recently, many of our cities are faced with additional challenges in this international terrorism war.

There is a great cost involved in making our mass transit systems both bus and rail, secure in this terrorist war. While the Conference of Mayors was successful in federalizing the airport security, we have a way to go to secure our rail and bus systems.

And on port security, with thousands of containers daily coming to our shores, we must have the technology and know-how to assure that explosive devices, atomic and non-atomic, are detected before they are boarded on trains and large transfer trucks that both bring these containers through the ports and to our population centers where millions of our people exist.

Both transit security and port security will be discussed in Long Beach in September. We have asked our Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff to be with us in Long Beach. We were disappointed he could not be with us in Chicago due to President Bush needing him at that time for an important White House matter. It is most important that mayors have a close dialogue and a clear understanding of the new priorities of the Homeland Security Department and we know that Secretary Chertoff will meet with us soon.

Mayor O’Neill, in her inaugural address in Chicago, charged Membership Chair Burnsville (MN) Mayor Elizabeth Kautz to work with me, your executive director, to develop a new membership strategy to bring in new mayor members and retain existing members. This initiative is most essential as we are constantly seeing more and more new mayors as a result of term limits. Another challenge is the economic challenge a mayor faces in convincing his or her city council the Conference of Mayors dues are a sound investment because our organization is about the business of advocating for cities, protecting cities, and promoting cities across the board.

Our President will be asking existing members to help us with individual mayors in the individual states. All sizes of cities fall into the category of non-members. Politically it is most important that we must have mayor/city members in every state in the Union as we push your agenda before and through the Congress and the Bush Administration, which includes The White House and the many federal agencies that make up the Executive Branch.

Leadership mayors are reminded to register for our Long Beach Leadership Meeting September 22-25. Sign up now. Conference President O’Neill welcomes all of you to her dynamic city on the Pacific, Long Beach. We invite you to come and join too with President O’Neill as she launches her national Summits under her theme of advocacy calling for “Cities for a Stronger America.” We look forward to seeing you in Long Beach next month. If you have not responded, please contact Carol Edwards at (202) 293-7330.

Have a good August and restful Labor Day.