All politics are local: mayors meet in DC

“Mayors gather in Washington to strategize against House budget cuts

By Felicia Sonmez

Thirty mayors from across the country are gathering in Washington this week to sketch out a strategy for mobilizing against the resolution passed by the House last week that would cut $61 billion in federal spending.

Led by Burnsville, Minn. Mayor Elizabeth Kautz, the U.S. Conference of Mayors delegation is holding closed-door sessions in which mayors are crafting an appeal to the Senate to restore funding to the Community Development Block Grant program, which the conference hails as "the most important federal investment to job creation and neighborhood revitalization in local communities."

The mayors also plan to discuss other programs that would be impacted by the cuts, including homeland security grants, workforce training grants, community health centers, education, high speed rail and public housing.

Kautz is slated to hold a news conference at 11:30 a.m. Thursday to discuss the mayors' strategy, along with Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter; Newton, Mass. Mayor Setti Warren; U.S. Conference of Mayors CEO Tom Cochran and nearly 30 other mayors.

Both chambers are doing battle over the measure to continue funding the federal government through the rest of the fiscal year, which ends in September. Senate Democrats have signaled that the House-passed funding resolution is a non-starter in the upper chamber, contending that its cuts are too deep.

The measure currently funding the government expires March 4, giving lawmakers little time to come to an agreement on a longer-term spending resolution and pointing toward the likelihood of a stop-gap funding measure in order to avoid a government shutdown.

But even the topic of a short-term funding resolution has been a contentious one; House Republicans are crafting a measure that would cut $4 billion over two weeks, but that idea was rejected Wednesday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

The full list of mayors participating in this week's meeting is after the jump.”