New caucus brings local voices to halls of Congress

Source: Smart Cities Dive | By Chris Teale

The Former Local Elected Officials Caucus hopes to improve cooperation among levels of government and provide support during and after COVID-19 recovery.

As mayor of Phoenix, Greg Stanton had to build consensus with his eight colleagues on the city council to achieve anything. It meant coalition-building and cooperation regardless of ideology.

That type of local-level collaboration is important to emulate at the national level in Washington, D.C., said Stanton, now a member of Congress in Arizona's 9th District after serving as mayor from 2012 to 2018.

Collaboration takes on more even greater importance as federal leaders negotiate investing in infrastructure through President Joe Biden's American Jobs Plan and oversee the distribution of $350 billion in direct relief for state and local governments under the American Rescue Plan.

So in April Stanton joined with 17 of his House colleagues to form the bipartisan Former Local Elected Officials Caucus, in concert with the National League of Cities (NLC) and the National Association of Counties (NACo). Stanton is one of four co-chairs, alongside Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., Kay Granger, R-Texas, and Dave Joyce, R-Ohio.

"Having come from local government is a really important training for entering Congress because you find that the fundamentals are the same," Stanton said. "To be successful you've got to build community support for a proposal, and then you've got to work with your fellow elected officials to build support within the organization. We all were successful in doing that in the local government setting, and that's in part why we’re lucky enough to be in Congress."

Policy goals

Pandemic recovery is one area where the new caucus hopes to provide value. The U.S. Department of the Treasury this month launched the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, which will distribute the $350 billion in emergency funding for state and local governments the American Rescue Plan provided. Those funds can support public health spending, address negative economic impacts, and help those communities worst impacted invest in broadband internet, sewer and water infrastructure.

Some lawmakers have derided that aid as "blue state bailouts," something Connolly said is misguided given how many services local governments provide. With the coronavirus pandemic decimating some local budgets, and federal help needed to make up the shortfall, making sure nonfederal actors have a voice in Congress is crucial, he said.

"I think [those criticisms were] an alarming development, in terms of the depths of ignorance about what states and localities, in fact, do, and how important they are," Connolly said.

Connolly, who is a former chair of the Fairfax County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors, said he hoped the new caucus could also help the various levels of government cooperate better with each other and work together to solve common problems.