The City Council of Philadelphia calls on our Congressional Representatives and Federal Government to preserve the funding for the Community Development Block Grant program and other programs designed to assist community development in urban and rural areas.

WHEREAS, Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), is a program that provides essential federal investments to meet communities' needs for economic development, housing, public infrastructure improvements, parks and recreation facilities, and community centers; and

WHEREAS, CDBG funds can be used to create housing opportunities to assist low-income and moderate- income residents of cities and towns to meet one of their most basic needs to achieve economic independence; and

WHEREAS, The President has proposed to slash the budget of the CDBG program by nearly $1 billion dollars; and

WHEREAS, The CDBG program which has existed for 30 years for economic development, recreation centers, day-care facilities, literacy programs, and housing development; and

WHEREAS, The President proposes eliminating other community development programs such as the Section 108 loan guarantee program, brownfields clean-up, enterprise zones, rural housing and economic development by “consolidating them into the Commerce department budgets; and

WHEREAS, The Federal government is sending billions of dollars to other countries to develop their infrastructure, while simultaneously decreasing domestic spending for urban and rural areas; and

WHEREAS, The President's budget once again proposes to eliminate state grants for vocational education ($1.18 billion); and

WHEREAS, The Administration also proposes to eliminate the $346 million state grants for safe and drug free schools; now therefore

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Calling upon our Federal Legislators to act in the best interest of the City.

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