The National League of Cities, an organized comprised of city, town, and village leaders, outline key points in their advocacy efforts related to the recent reconciliation bill. This bill is still under construction within Congress, but before it is voted on, NLC put forth an article discussing the aspects of the bill they have been advocating for as part of a letter they wrote to Congress in September. The reconciliation bill is said to have four main components related to NLC's focus as it will affect workforce development, climate change and resilience, housing, and technical assistance.

The association's priority to develop the workforce is contacted with infrastructure investment. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which passed the Senate in August, would fund projects to create, maintain, and repair roads, bridges, water systems, and broadband networks. NLC believes it would help establish or save 15 million jobs over the next ten years, but they also believe there needs to be a greater investment in workers. For this reason, NLC is supporting the $80 billion in workforce funding found in the House's reconciliation bill.

 

NLC also supports the climate change and resiliency measures found in the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation bill. Together, the bills fund "electric vehicles and infrastructure, building efficiency and resilience, home energy efficiency and appliance electrification rebates, and low-income households and multifamily affordable housing solar facilities and community solar projects."

The reconciliation bill allocates $327 billion to housing, and NLC urges Congressional leaders to "maintain housing investments that directly help residents and local governments meet their needs for decent, affordable housing." They specifically cited rental assistance vouchers for low-income housing, public housing programs, the National Housing Trust Fund, CDBG, and the HOME Investment Partnership Program.

The association's fourth focus, technical assistance, involves the Federal Government providing resources and funding to technical assistance programs to help expand the geographic distribution of federal funds to an increased number of local governments.

https://www.nlc.org/article/2021/10/08/the-reconciliation-bill-whats-at-stake-for-cities/?utm_campaign=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=informz&utm_content=fa-newsletter-20211019&utm_term=text-link&_zs=rG5oa&_zl=6S4o2