Inside 208

Last month the National League of Cities was asked to testify at the House Transportation Committee’s kickoff hearing to reauthorize the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes from Austin, TX, the Chair of the NLC Transportation & Infrastructure Services Committee, testified on behalf of NLC. IIJA greatly expanded the number of infrastructure programs local governments could access, but now we need to protect the local-federal partnership programs in the face of limited federal funding and tough scrutiny in the renewal process.

To bolster the data behind every state’s push to support ongoing federal investment in infrastructure, the NLC Research team has prepared a new local infrastructure priorities survey where we encourage every city and village to make their most needed infrastructure project known before March 12^th. The goal is to have every state’s representation resulting in national report out of the nation’s most pressing city infrastructure needs and state-by-state breakouts for Senators and State Leagues for use for state-level work.

The Michigan Municipal League is helping NLC promote this survey to our members. It is important to have Michigan’s perspective as complete as possible. Click here and please take five minutes to fill out the survey provided by NLC.

John LaMacchia is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at [email protected] or 517-908-0303.