November 17, 2003

Ruben Barrales, Director of Intergovernmental Relations for the White House, Roy Bernardi, Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Marianne Horinko, Acting U. S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator hosted the second White House Round Table discussion with mayors. Barrales opened the meeting by saying, "You have a friend in the Federal government, who you can turn to when you have problems." He discussed some of the Administration's work in areas such as Homeland Security and shared how the regional plans were developed within states. Barrales also highlighted the importance of brownfields redevelopment stating, "We need to return brownfields sites out of use into reuse to improve the economic vitality of our cities." Barrales illustrated the more recent economic indicators that demonstrated the economy was turning around with improved signals. Assistant Secretary Bernardi segued into the developments occurring at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Bernardi discussed HUD's current outreach and education efforts to meet the needs of cities in the area of brownfields redevelopment. He said, "Urban development is very important to us. We have dedicated $10 million for technical assistance and capactiy building programs." Acting Administrator Horinko acknowledged the tremendous amount of work mayors are conducting to redevelop brownfields. She stated, "Mayors and county executives are the engines that are driving the brownfields program." She also stressed the need for Federal agencies to continue to partner and share their experiences in brownfields redevelopment in order to continue to meet the needs of local governments.