Mayors' bipartisan national agenda covers a
full range of issues impacting American cities
WASHINGTON, June 24,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the U.S. Conference of
Mayors (USCM) released its 2024 election priorities, a bipartisan
national issue platform that will drive the mayors' advocacy at
this summer's Republican and Democratic national conventions and
beyond. Release of the mayors' policy roadmap for the next Congress
and presidential administration comes one day after the conclusion
of the 92nd Annual U.S. Conference of Mayors Annual
Meeting in Kansas City, where
mayors spent four days collaborating on opportunities and
challenges facing America's cities.
The national priorities cover a full range of issues impacting
American cities. Among them: ensuring affordable housing for all
Americans, enacting commonsense gun laws, increasing direct mental
health funding for cities, expanding workforce training to meet
future job demands, and protecting the environment.
Mayors have been steadfast advocates for these priorities in
recent years, seeing progress in the enactment of bipartisan
legislation such as the American Rescue Plan Act and the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law, but more work remains to be done, especially to
address the current affordable housing and mental health
crises.
The bipartisan group of mayors plans to carry their agenda to
both Presidential and congressional candidates, calling on them to
address Federal actions that impact people where they live.
"The nation's mayors view national issues on a personal scale,"
said USCM President Columbus (OH) Mayor Andrew Ginther. "As we head into another
election year, mayors want to keep everyone's eyes on the prize:
thoughtful, bipartisan solutions that make a meaningful difference
in individual's lives. We want this agenda to serve as a roadmap
for our work with our federal partners in the coming year."
"Mayors get things done," said USCM CEO and Executive
Director Tom Cochran. "We are
proud to be an organization that unites, rather than divides, that
works to offer solutions, not more problems. Mayors are committed
to advocating for more federal/local partnerships to address our
country's most pressing issues. These priorities are critical to
the health of our nation."
See full priorities below.
2024 Election Priorities for the Next Congress and
Administration
In this ELECTION YEAR of 2024, as the American people
elect the 119th Congress and the next President, the nation's
mayors present a bipartisan platform of national priorities for the
candidates to address. U.S. Metro cities represent 90% of the
nation's GDP and more than 90% of its economic growth, standing as
the powerhouse of the American economy. To ensure the continued
health and prosperity of the nation, adoption of these priorities
is essential.
Housing: Ensure Affordable Housing and End
Homelessness
Without further delay, the next president and Congress must pass
the largest and most comprehensive investment legislation in
affordable housing in American history that incentivizes
production, helps families buy their first home, ends homelessness,
and ensures that our first responders, teachers and frontline
healthcare workers can live where they work.
Public Safety: Enact Common Sense Gun Laws and Address Police
Department Needs
According to the latest FBI report, crime is down thanks to our
mayors and police departments. Congress must support law
enforcement by enacting common sense gun safety legislation to
require universal background checks, prohibit assault weapons,
high-capacity magazines, and ghost guns, and raise the age for
possession or purchase of guns from 18 to 21. Mayors and police
chiefs call for a comprehensive federal initiative to encourage
young people and others to become police officers.
Mental Health: Drive Mental Health Funding to the Local
Level
Create the first-ever city mental health block grant to provide
direct, flexible funding to cities for prevention, education, and
intervention efforts to address the nation's expanding behavioral
health crisis. Cities are on the front lines in addressing mental
health crises, often encountering individuals in urgent need of
care and longer-term mental health services.
Transportation: Localize Investments to Adapt to Post-Covid
Realities
The nation must revamp our federal surface transportation law by
providing direct funding to cities to adapt and respond more
readily to local transportation changes as a result of COVID, such
as altered return to work scenarios, local commuting patterns and
new transportation technologies. Today's "more localized
transportation system" requires a local decision-making
framework.
Workforce: Build a Workforce for the Future - Immigration
Reform
Building a future workforce means making investments in
education and training as well as attracting new workers. We need
to fully fund workforce development and maintain local control and
flexibility in reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and
Opportunity Act (WIOA). And our nation must pass visa reform as
part of a comprehensive immigration package to attract and retain
both the high-skilled and lower- skilled workers we need to address
worker shortages.
Water and Wastewater: Provide Clean Water for All
Americans
We must significantly increase federal funding to meet our
nation's commitment to deliver clean drinking water and wastewater
treatment. Cities cannot bear alone the onerous cost of removing
harmful contaminants, such as PFAS, lead and hazardous
materials.
Climate: Fully Fund the Energy Efficiency and Conservation
Block Grant (EECBG)
Nearly 90% of our GDP occurs in our U.S. Metro cities, which
must develop local climate action ecosystems to achieve aggressive
greenhouse gas reduction goals. To meet this objective, Congress
must provide dedicated, direct federal funding of $3.5 billion annually through the Energy
Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant.
Immigration: Fix our Broken System
Enact comprehensive immigration reform legislation, but act
immediately to address the most pressing problems, including
providing funding to cities along the border and in the interior
that are struggling to assist the migrants arriving in them,
accelerating work authorizations, adequately funding customs and
border protection and immigration courts, and providing legal
status to DACA and TPS recipients and other undocumented people who
have been here for many years.
2025 Tax Bill: Rewrite Tax Code to Address National
Priorities
The 2017 Tax law expires in 2025: we need to replace it with new
and fairer tax policies that reflect national needs in housing,
mental health, public safety, the environment, and childcare. This
means writing an equitable tax bill that directs investments in key
domestic priorities over the next decade.
CHIPS and Science Act: Strengthen our Security and Transform
our Economy
We must continue to implement and fully fund the CHIPS for
America programs to improve national security and modernize our
economy through transformative investments in manufacturing,
research and development, and innovation.
Human Rights and Tolerance: Protect Democracy and Human
Rights
Our democracy must be protected. The federal government and
courts must preserve election integrity, reject extremism and all
forms of bigotry, denounce all acts of hate, ensure public safety
while protecting free speech and other constitutional rights,
promote inclusivity and enforce civil rights laws.
About the United States Conference of
Mayors – The U.S. Conference of
Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of
cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are more than
1,400 such cities in the country today, and each city is
represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the
mayor. Follow our work
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and Medium.
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SOURCE U.S. Conference of Mayors