2022 Federal
Legislative Platform
City Council
Meeting
January 25, 2022
Scott Alonso
Intergovernmental Relations &
Legislative Affairs Officer
John O’Donnell & Kyriakos
Pagonis
MMO Partners
1 Introduction
About Murray Montgomery O’Donnell (MMO) Partners
• Representing local governments in Washington, D.C. for over four decades.
• MMO partners and associates have over 170 years of
combined experience working in and with local, state, and federal governments.
• Non-Partisan Approach for success
• Annualized ROI for MMO clients
Analysis
Purpose for Establishing a Federal Legislative
Platform
• Communicates the City’s federal policy and
project priorities to the public, CA
Congressional Delegation, Congress and
federal agencies.
• Provides guidance/direction to City staff and
federal representatives regarding City’s federal
funding priorities.
• Prior platform was adopted by the City Council
on February 2, 2021
3 2021 Highlights
2021 Federal Platform Review:
COVID Recovery and Economic Resiliency
Priorities
$1.9 trillion ARPA Signed into Law on March 11,
2021
$130b for Coronavirus Local Fiscal
Recovery Fund-$34.6m for Santa Rosa
$1.1b for Low Income Home Water
Assistance - $116m for CA
$50b for FEMA 100% reimbursement for
COVID related expenses
4 2021 Highlights Continued
2021 Federal Platform Review:
COVID Recovery and Economic Resiliency
Priorities
$3b for Economic Development Administration
Paid Family leave benefits extended
$47b ($25b-ERA1 and $22b –ERA2) for
Emergency Rental Assistance – $14.7m
(ERA1)Sonoma County allocation;$17.3m
(ERA2)
$7.1b Broadband- Emergency Connectivity
Fund - (Schools and libraries)
$5b Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHV)- 131
awarded to Santa Rosa
5 2021 Highlights Continued
COVID-19 Response & Economic Resiliency Priorities
• Support legislation that provides direct and flexible funding to local governments for the costs incurred as a result of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Support legislation that provides assistance for rental relief and water/utility/sewer payments to those residents impacted by loss of revenue due to COVID-19.
• Support legislation to protect employees and the community from COVID-19.
6 2021 Highlights Continued
2021 Federal Platform Review:
Policy and Infrastructure Priorities
A. Wildfire Resiliency
$1m Emergency Operations Center (EOC) (Sponsors- Rep. Thompson, Senators Feinstein and Padilla)
$33.9m in 2017 CDBG-Mitigation AND the 2017 CDBG-Disaster Recovery – Infrastructure Program
Fire Station 5 relocation language included in FIRE Act (Padilla/Lofgren) $500m for At-Risk Communities (IIJA)
City/County resiliency language included (IIJA)
B. Community and Environmental Infrastructure
$108b for Public Transit (IIJA)
$27b for FTA urbanized formula - $27.4m for Santa Rosa (ARPA) MLK PARK National Parks Service ORLP (pending)
C. Housing and Community Development
$5b for HOME- City received $2,737,433 (ARPA)
Reimbursement for Sandman hotel costs (ARPA - pending)
D. Public Safety
$1.052m for Justice Mental Health Collaboration – FY 22 Senate CJS bill (Sponsors-Senators Feinstein and Padilla)
7 Proposed Federal Priorities
COVID-19 Relief, Mitigation and Recovery
• Support direct and flexible funding to units of local governments, assistance to communities to help with vaccine distribution, assistance to prevent and address homelessness and housing affordability, support for households needing financial assistance for broadband connectivity, programs like Emergency Broadband Benefit and Affordable Connectivity Program.
• Support 100% Federal cost share for all work eligible COVID expenses.
• Support the passage of legislation like the State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act (S. 3011 and HR 5735) that provides local governments with additional flexibility to meet community response and recovery needs.
8 Proposed Federal Priorities
Wildfire Resiliency and Recovery
• Support federal legislation that provides sufficient federal funding and federal agency resources to support natural disaster mitigation, rebuilding and recovery efforts. Support passage of legislation, including the FIRE Act, that updates the Stafford Act to ensure FEMA’s recovery and mitigation programs address the unique nature of wildfires and their impacts on urban areas. • Support federal legislation that permanently authorizes the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG- DR) program and allows the Secretary of Housing Urban
Development to provide direct funding allocations to local governments.
• Advocate for continued funding and improvement of the Integrated Public Alert Warning System.
9 Proposed Federal Priorities
Surface Transportation
• Support federal legislation and funding that invests in surface transportation priorities that: promote equity, address the adverse impact of climate change and invest in resiliency projects; supports bicycle and pedestrian facilities; addresses significant backlog of deferred pavement rehabilitation, and invests in public transit programs.
• Support the promotion of active transportation, complete street implementation, healthy foods, youth programming and maximizing the usage of green space in urban/suburban and rural settings for personal enjoyment.
• Support policies that enable technological innovations to improve mobility including connected and automated vehicle (CV/AV) and shared bicycle systems.
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Proposed Federal Priorities
Water and Energy Resiliency
• Support federal legislation and funding that invest in water, sewer, and stormwater infrastructure programs such as: The Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds; recycled water projects, water conservation projects, stormwater, groundwater, watershed protection and improvement, local and regional flood protection, and Sonoma Water projects.
• Support new and existing federal resources and grant opportunities for climate adaptation, renewable energy generation and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program. • Support federal programs, like the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP), that provides funds to assist low- income households with water and wastewater bills. 1
1 Proposed Federal Priorities
Housing and Community Development
• Support federal legislation that increases funding and federal incentives to address affordable housing and homelessness including support for Continuum of Care, Emergency Food and Shelter, CDBG, HOME, Universal Vouchers, permanent supportive housing, down payment assistance and other federal programs that invest in helping our most vulnerable residents.
• Support the Economic Development Administration's
reauthorization and ability for EDA to assist communities recovering from a disaster, including the dedication of a fund with annual appropriations for immediate responses to economic crises associated with declared disasters or states of emergency. • Advocate for efforts to increase funding to support new childcare facilities and increase funding for childcare workers.
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Proposed Federal Priorities
Public Safety
• Support legislation and funding that will help local governments with improving community policing and rebuilding community trust through officer training and mental health first response for crises involving mental illness, homelessness, and addiction; and support programs like the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program.
• Advocate for federal funding and legislation that supports emergency response including increasing funding for firefighter equipment and training, community engagement and education, firefighter hiring, and fire station construction.
• Recommend funding opportunities be created for public safety to include diversity in police and fire hiring, recruiting and education practices.
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Recommendation
It is recommended by the Communications &
Intergovernmental Relations Office that the
Council, by resolution, adopt the City’s 2022
Federal Legislative Platform.
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QUESTIONS?
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