12 NATION’S CITIES WEEKLY
Policy, from page 1
changes to the NMP, including
adding new policy sections on
smart grid and product stewardship and amending sections
pertaining to nuclear energy and
natural gas. Additionally, the
committee incorporated resolutions pertaining to climate
change adaptation, invasive species, product stewardship, appliance standards and hardrock
mining and reclamation into
permanent policy.
Finally, EENR recommended renewing five existing resolutions that were adopted at
the Annual Business Meeting
related to water infrastructure
financing and regulatory pri-oritization, sustainability, the
Deepwater Horizon BP Oil
Spill and ecosystem restoration,
Property Assessed Clean Energy
Programs, local building code
authority and Milfoil. The committee approved four new resolutions on tax-exempt facility
bonds for water and wastewater,
ensuring that the Keystone Oil
Pipeline will protect the environment, supporting sustainability principles in the upcoming farm bill and supporting the
One Health Initiative.
Over the last year, the primary focus of the Community
and Economic Development
Committee (CED), chaired by
Coolidge, Ariz., Vice Mayor
Gilbert Lopez, was to research
economic development and job
creation strategies and opportunities for cities and towns
operating under severe fiscal
restraints. The committee also
continued to devote attention
to highlighting successful local
examples of integrated planning
and sustainable development
for the purpose of evaluating
federal policies and programs
that encourage integration of
housing, transit and energy efficiency goals among all levels of
government.
The CED committee recom-
mended renewal of two resolu-
tions at the conference. The
first urges Congress to support
programs and federal invest-
ments in green affordable hous-
ing and financing—including
programs like PACE that enable
cities and towns to offer low-
cost loans to homeowners for
installing cost-saving energy
efficiency improvements. The
second calls on Congress to
maintain support for sustainable
development programs within
the Departments of Housing
and Urban Development
and Transportation and the
Environmental Protection
Agency.
The committee also recommended renewing resolutions
supporting comprehensive
immigration reform, endorsing
plans to end chronic homelessness, urging the federal government to address disparities
within the bone marrow registry
and calling for federal action to
end the nation’s jobs crisis.
Finally, the committee recommended the adoption of
new resolutions calling on the
federal government to increase
investments in education and
to adopt programs to reduce
obesity and improve the overall
health and wellness of citizens.
All of these recommendations
were approved by the voting
delegates.
The Transportation
Infrastructure and Services
Committee (TIS), chaired
by Rancho Cordova, Calif.,
Council Member David Sander,
focused much of its work this
year on transportation reauthorization, recommending changes to the NLC surface transportation reauthorization policy
and reiterating the need for a
national vision for surface transportation that encourages local
innovation, transportation alternatives and decision making,
and financing options, and recognizes the role of transportation as the economic backbone
of a community. The committee also highlighted in its policy
recommendations the importance of freight in a national
transportation network.
Additional recommended
updates to the NMP, which
were subsequently adopted by
voting delegates at the Annual
Business Meeting, reflect the
committee’s work surrounding
sustainability, transportation
financing and regional plan-
ning — including a focus on
the key role of Metropolitan
Planning Organizations in mak-
ing transportation decisions, a
call for streamlining regulatory
processes without sacrificing
environmental quality, support
for the expansion of the federal
TIFIA credit assistance program
and emphasis on the need for
additional federal transportation
revenues to offset the contin-
ued decline in federal gas tax
receipts.
National Broadband Map and
implications of social media on
data privacy and cybersecurity.
Recognizing the intersection
between its work and the work
of other committees, the ITC
Committee also met jointly
with the EENR committee to
discuss smart grid technology
and opened a dialogue with the
FAIR committee on the telecommunications tax structure.
ITC recommended two
changes to the NMP, which
were approved: the first encourages federal action to eliminate unsolicited wireless communications, and the second
strengthens existing policy calling for the federal government
to consult regularly with local
governments and industry representatives on revisions to federal standards to keep them current as new technologies evolve.
Additionally, ITC recommended the renewal of two
existing resolutions: ( 1) support
for community broadband, and
( 2) support for expanded access
to high-quality broadband as
a basis for economic development. The committee also spent
significant time discussing the
U.S. Federal Communications
Commission’s Notice of Inquiry
(NOI) Relating to Acceleration
of Broadband Deployment,
through which the agency
sought input from local governments on a number of issues
involving local public rights-of-way management, compensation and wireless facilities siting
requirements, and recommended one new resolution opposing
the NOI. These recommendations were also approved at the
Annual Business Meeting.
All of the policies and resolutions brought forth by these
committees and ratified at the
Congress of Cities will inform
NLC’s legislative priorities and
advocacy efforts for the year
ahead.
The full NMP is available
for viewing on the NLC website
at www.nlc.org/influence-fed
eral-policy/resources/national-municipal-policy.
Transportation, from page 1
at current funding levels of $85 billion per year for two years. The bill
would eliminate earmarks and speed
project delivery by streamlining regulatory processes. MAP-21 would greatly
expand the Transportation Infrastructure
Finance and Innovation Program from
the current $25 million to $1 billion and
make the program easier to access for
rural communities.
Important to local governments are
proposed thresholds for remaining a met-
ropolitan planning organization. MAP-
21 would set a new MPO threshold of
200,000 in population, impacting 230 of
the nation’s current 382 MPOs.
Deadline Extended for
Commenting on ADA Rules
A federal independent agency has
extended the deadline for commenting
on an extensive set of new guidelines on
pedestrian rights-of-way and steps that
local governments must take to comply
under the Americans with Disabilities
Act until February 2 at the request of
NLC and other groups.
