State and local government finance issues are getting an additional voice in Congress through the formation of a new caucus of former state and local officials.
The Congressional Caucus of Former Local Elected Officials announced Wednesday is starting with 18 members, but organizers say 112 members of the House and 24 senators qualify for membership.
That means one-quarter of members of Congress have “experience working across partisan lines to apply practical solutions to our real-world challenges,” said Mathew Chase, CEO and executive director of the National Association of Counties.
“We know the importance of working together,” said Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., a former mayor of Phoenix, who is serving as one of the four bipartisan co-chairs.
The other co-chairs are Democratic Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia, a former chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors; Republican Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, a former mayor of Fort Worth; and Republican Rep. David Joyce of Ohio, a former public defender.
Joyce said he looks forward to working with other former local officials to break through "a highly partisan environment in our nation's capital.
"I'm proud to have spent my entire career serving the community where I was born and raised," Joyce said.
Wednesday’s announcement of the new caucus was sponsored by NACo and the National League of Cities.
Both groups worked hard last year with other state and local groups such as the National Governors Association to lobby Congress for direct emergency aid to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn.
“While communities across the country look to rebuild and recover, we look to Washington for a strong federal partnership,” said NLC CEO Clarence Anthony, noting that he is also a former mayor.
Many congressional Republicans opposed direct aid to state and local governments as part of the emergency relief even though it was sought after by Republicans elected officials at other levels of government.
“With conversations around infrastructure and workforce investment beginning in Congress, the perspective of how these programs and policies will be implemented on the ground is of the utmost importance,” Anthony said.
“It is for these reasons, and many more, that we look forward to working collaboratively with this caucus to uplift local impact, inform policy, and support their work in Congress,” he said.
Connolly said he hope to increase “local government literacy” among his colleagues in Congress.
“At the end of the day, it's local governments that actually have to deliver the assistance we're mandating at the federal level,” he said. “They're the ones who run the health clinics, they're the ones who do the vaccinations. They are the ones who educate our students remotely during a pandemic, and on and on.”
Connolly said he wished Congress would reestablish the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, which existed for nearly four decades. Its accomplishments including the role it played in instituting unfunded mandate reforms.
Republican Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah is a cosponsor with Connolly on proposed legislation to bring back the commission. That legislation passed the House in the last Congress but never received a vote in the Senate.
