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2008 Legislative Policies & Priorities
A REGIONAL APPROACH TO ADVANCING AND SERVING AMERICA'S LOCAL COMMUNITIES
The members of the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) support federal programs and policies that encourage regional approaches to improving the economic conditions and quality of life in America's local communities.
This includes building on the proven track record of the nation's 520 regional development organizations in fostering cooperation among local officials, leveraging limited resources to achieve economies of scale and implementing a broad portfolio of federal and state programs on a regional basis.
As multi-jurisdictional public entities governed by local elected officials, along with private sector, higher education and community representatives, the nation’s regional development organizations serve as a key catalyst for strategic
planning, public-private partnerships and regional initiatives that are designed to meet locally-identified community
and economic development priorities and needs. Historically, our efforts have focused on public infrastructure improvements, business development finance lending, comprehensive planning strategies, transportation planning and other
traditional building blocks for promoting local job creation and wealth generation activities.
In recent years, public sector leaders at all levels of government have turned to our regional entities to deliver, manage
and coordinate an increasingly diverse portfolio, including: aging services, homeland security and emergency preparedness, brownfields redevelopment, Geographic Information System (GIS) services, public transportation and workforce development programs. This trend reflects the fact that regional development organizations are publicly accountable, achieve measurable results and provide efficient and high-quality services.
For the 2008 legislative session, the members of NADO place a priority on increasing intergovernmental cooperation among all levels of government, retaining and building upon the existing set of federal assistance programs, and enhancing the planning, delivery and administration of federal programs on a sub-state regional basis. Specifically, these priorities include:
- Community and Economic Development - Fully fund the existing portfolio of federal community and economic development programs, most notably the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), HUD’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, SBA’s business lending programs and USDA Rural Development’s portfolio of grant and loan programs.
- Homeland Security Coordination and Preparedness - Support enhanced federal guidelines, resources and incentives that build upon the experience, capacity and skills of the national network of regional development organizations to develop, coordinate and implement homeland security and emergency preparedness activities on a regional basis.
- Rural Development in the Farm Bill Conference Report - Promote the expansion of resources, flexibility and innovation within the Rural Development Title of the 2008 Farm Bill, including regionally-based initiatives to promote strategic planning and development, entrepreneurship, broadband and technology deployment, infrastructure upgrades and business development finance assistance.
- Transportation - Provide full and sustainable funding for the nation's aviation, highway and transit needs as outlined in the respective authorization laws, SAFETEA-LU and AIR-21. In addition, support the full implementation of the January 2003 federal rules requiring an enhanced role for rural local officials and regional development organizations in the statewide transportation planning and programming processes.
View the 2008 Legislative Policies and Priorities
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