Affordable housing, mental health, gun violence, immigration and building decarbonization are among the key issues the U.S. Conference of Mayors will advocate to address during the next Congress and presidential administration, the group announced Monday.
“The nation’s mayors view national issues on a personal scale,” Andrew Ginther, the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ president and Columbus, Ohio’s mayor, said in a statement.
With many cities facing a continuing affordable housing crisis, the group called on the next cohort of federal policymakers to “pass the largest and most comprehensive investment legislation in affordable housing in American history,” according to a news release.
The group also wants more federal money to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address “the nation’s expanding behavioral health crisis.” The mayors are calling for Congress to create the first-ever city mental health block grant as well as provide $3.5 billion each year to the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program. The 2021 infrastructure law provided that program with $550 million, money that is going directly to some local governments for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.
The group also wants more federal dollars to remove contaminants like PFAS from water supplies and revamp transportation systems for a post-pandemic world. “Today’s ‘more localized transportation system’ requires a local decision-making framework,” the news release says. Funding for the current five-year federal surface transportation program will expire on Sept. 30, 2026.
Some cities are buckling under the pressure of arriving migrants, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors wants the federal government to help. That includes providing funding to cities struggling to assist migrants, accelerating work authorizations, providing legal status to certain undocumented people who have been in the U.S. for many years, and adequately funding U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the courts that handle immigration.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors is also urging Congress to address gun violence by requiring universal background checks and raising the age for gun purchase or possession from 18 to 21. It also wants Congress to prohibit assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and “ghost” guns. Ghost guns are untraceable weapons without serial numbers. Additionally, the mayors want a federal initiative to encourage people to become police officers, as some cities face severe staffing shortages in their law enforcement departments.
The mayors will advocate for these priorities at this summer’s Republican and Democratic national conventions ahead of this year’s presidential election.
