Shays Calls For Full-Funding of Block Grant Program
By Adam Kredo
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 – In a letter to President Bush this week, Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and 28 other members of Congress have called for full funding of the Community Development Block Grant program in the President’s forthcoming fiscal 2007 budget proposal.
“We encourage the administration to propose funding for this vital program at traditional levels and continue to have CDBG administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development,” the letter said.
The letter highlights the importance of community involvement in deciding how the federal money is spent. And in a press release, Shays said, “Community Development Block Grant dollars allow local communities to determine priorities for community development. They have a tremendously positive impact on the cities and towns.”
“I believe in this program,” Shays said in an interview. “The money is spent exceptionally well” by the local communities.
Shays said he finds the idea of cuts in the program “mind-boggling.”
Communities receiving block grants are allowed to decide how to spend the money, which is why many supporters of the program want to keep it fully funded.
“These are some of the most flexible funds local municipalities have,” said Larry Kluetsch, executive director of the Mutual Housing Association of Southwestern Connecticut.
Mainly programs would be affected by a decrease in federal grant money, according to community program managers.
“The less money we’re given, the less money we have for the [low-income] people who apply to our programs,” said Michael Moore, senior community development project manager for the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency.
Because of the bipartisan efforts of more than 180 House members and 55 senators, the grants remained unaltered last year. As a result, Norwalk received more than $1 million, according to a press spokesperson for Shays.
Shays’ letter said the block grant program “has been a vital tool in helping to rebuild communities for the last 30 years.”
“As you mentioned in your speech in New Orleans on January 12,” the letter to the President said, the block grant program “is playing an important role in helping to aid recovery in the Gulf States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.”
In this instance, the block grants empowered the New Orleans community to rectify local programs on their own, while continuing to support the area’s neediest citizens, according to the letter.
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