In this issue:
Federal Policy Update
Send Smart Growth America your “Smart Growth Stories”
Register for the LOCUS Leadership Summit on June 5-7, 2012
New National Governor’s Association Report: New Engines of Growth – Five Roles for Arts, Culture and Design
Submit your nominations for The ULI Terwillinger Center for Housing Awards by May 18, 2012
Federal Policy Update
The conference committee for reauthorization of the federal surface transportation bill held their first meeting last week. Congressional staff are now working through the differences between the House and Senate passed legislation and must come to an agreement by June 30th, when the current extension expires.
Appropriations bills are expected to be extremely slow coming out of the House, and the contentious spending bills are even less likely to be completed and marked up. If an appropriations bill does come out of the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Subcommittee, we expect it to be the next month to six weeks. As a reminder, the Senate’s Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Subcommittee marked up their appropriations bill last month. This legislation included $50 million dollars for the HUD Sustainable Communities Initiative and $500 million for the TIGER grant program. The full Appropriations Committee also voted to approve the bill.
The House voted last week to approve an alternative to sequestration, H.R. 5652, the Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act of 2012. H.R. 5652 combines the work of six authorizing committees to replace sequestration for defense and non-defense discretionary budget lines and create savings of $242.8 billion over 10 years. It is important to note that the bill does not prevent sequestration for non-defense mandatory spending, such as the farm bill and Medicare. While it has passed the House, H.R. 5652 faces little to no likelihood of gaining support in the Senate or becoming law.
SGA’s latest blog series: “Smart Growth Stories”
Smart Growth America is collecting ideas for its latest blog series and e-mail campaign, “Smart Growth Stories.” Not only will the stories provide coverage for some of the country’s most exciting projects, they will also serve as a resource for SGA coalition partners. Looking for fresh news content? Feel free to pull from the blog and to re-post. If there are opportunities to further spread the word or to get a posting in front of a new audience, alert us. For more information, send an e-mail to SGA’s press manager, Tom Madrecki.
Register for the LOCUS Leadership Summit
Real estate developers, investors and professionals are invited to join LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors for the first annual LOCUS Leadership Summit in Washington, DC. In partnership with Smart Growth America, this three-day event will provide real estate professionals from across the country the opportunity to meet with Congressional leaders and smart growth industry leaders, to network with fellow professionals, and gain in-depth information about the federal financing of real estate and other innovative solutions to challenges facing the real estate industry. Click here for more information.
New National Governor’s Association Report: “New Engines of Growth: Five Roles of Art, Culture, and Design”
“New Engines of Growth” describes ways that the arts are and can be integral to economic development, business development, community revitalization, and workforce preparedness. The report provides many examples of successful projects and partnerships around the country that are making a real difference for the people in their communities.
Click here to download the report.
Submit your nominations for the ULI Terwilliger Center Housing Awards by May 18th
The ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing has just issued a call for entries for their annual housing awards program. For 2012, they have two designations:
The Jack Kemp Workforce Housing Models of Excellence Award recognizes exemplary developments that meet workforce housing needs in the local community.
The Robert C. Larson Workforce Housing Public Policy Award recognizes innovative state and local policy initiatives that provide ongoing and sustainable support for workforce housing.
Click here for more information.