•HRES 1070 IH 
try to strengthen local leadership, drive innovation, and 
have influence on the policies that impact local programs 
and operations; 
Whereas, as the voice of cities, towns, and villages in Wash-
ington, DC, the National League of Cities has success-
fully championed Federal legislative solutions that sup-
port municipalities and has worked closely with Congress 
to educate on the realities of local implementation; 
Whereas the National League of Cities has championed the 
passage of foundational Federal legislation and bolstered 
the supportive efforts of Congress to strengthen the es-
sential services that municipalities provide to their com-
munities such as the following: 
(1) In 1965, the National League of Cities President 
Mayor Henry Maier of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, spoke at 
the National League of Cities’ First National Legislative 
Conference and called on the Federal Government to cre-
ate a Department of Housing and Urban Development 
(HUD). Later that year, President Lyndon B. Johnson 
consolidated five existing independent Federal housing 
and community development agencies into HUD. 
(2) In February 1972, on behalf of the National 
League of Cities, Mayor Thomas Bliley of Richmond, 
Virginia, testified to the Senate’s Committee on Public 
Works, Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution, sup-
porting the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1970. One 
key element of the Act is the congressional finding ‘‘that 
the prevention and control of air pollution at its source 
is the primary responsibility of States and local govern-
ments.’’. 
(3) Since the creation of the Community Develop-
ment Block Grant (CDBG) program in the 1974 Hous-
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•HRES 1070 IH 
ing and Community Development Act, CDBG grants 
have extended HUD’s reach beyond the urban core to cit-
ies, towns, and villages of all sizes, becoming an irre-
placeable tool in projects advancing rehabilitation of af-
fordable housing, the construction of vital public facili-
ties, and the expansion of business and employment op-
portunities. 
(4) In 1991, the National League of Cities made un-
funded mandates a key issue, putting it in the preamble 
of the organization’s National Municipal Policy. The Na-
tional Municipal Policy stated that ‘‘Federal mandates 
that impose direct costs must be accompanied by ade-
quate Federal funding’’. During the 1990s, the National 
League of Cities took the case of unfunded mandates to 
Congress, testifying three times before Congress on the 
importance of not imposing unfunded mandates on cities, 
towns, and villages. On March 25, 1995, President Bill 
Clinton signed the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act into 
law, with the National League of Cities’ 1996 President 
Greg Lashutka, Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, standing be-
side him. 
(5) In the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, Mayor 
Anthony Williams of Washington, DC ‘‘represented [the 
National League of Cities] interests very, very well,’’ ac-
cording to Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge. 
The efforts of the National League of Cities, he added, 
helped create the Department of Homeland Security. 
(6) In 2017, Mayor Gary Resnick of Wilton Manors, 
Florida, testified before the Senate Commerce, Science, 
and Transportation Committee about policies to remove 
barriers to broadband deployment by reducing costs, 
avoiding preemption, and increasing ‘‘local input in Fed-
eral decision-making processes,’’. 
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•HRES 1070 IH 
(7) In 2020 and 2021, the National League of Cities 
worked in a Federal-local partnership to ensure economic 
relief for all cities in the United States. 
Whereas the National League of Cities is proud that 21 per-
cent of serving Senators and Representatives, or 115 
elected Members of Congress, are former local elected of-
ficials; and 
Whereas the National League of Cities supported the creation 
of the Former Local Elected Officials Caucus, which 
brings together Members of Congress with prior service 
in local government to improve our Nation’s intergovern-
mental partnership and ensure that local governments’ 
voice is heard in Federal decision making: Now, there-
fore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives recog-
nizes the essential work of the National League of Cities 
over the last century and the role it will play in the next 
century in supporting our Nation’s municipalities with un-
paralleled research, technical expertise, and relentless ad-
vocacy as a key partner in preserving and strengthening 
the Federal-local partnership. 
Æ 
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