The National League of cities 2024essional city conference. More than 3000 leaders from all over the United States are gathered here today to advocate on behalf of their communities. This years conference is especially e our 100th anniversary. [applause] as the voice for americas cities, towns, and villages. A few minutes ago we heard from President Joe Biden the next few days, we will hear from and connect with a range of administration officials, in rooting transportation secretary buttigieg, education secretary, julie su and others and on wednesday more than 1000 mayors and City Council Members will go to capitol hill to make our voices heard when they meet with their members of congress. These meetings will focus on making sure Congress Knows that the direct provided to local government from the American Rescue plan act, a bipartisan infrastructure and Inflation Reduction Act are making a big difference and that is because local leaders know their communities best and they needed the most. Our meetings on capitol hill are also a focus of top priorities, like the Bipartisan Railway Safety act. This will improve rail safety and better ptect ourirst responders at the local level to keep their Community Safe every time a train derails. And it happens far too often in our country. On average, there are three train derailments per day in the the city. Ates and to 64 of them in the senate, we are waiting for the bill to be brought to the floor for a are waiting fore Transportation Committee to advance iton behalf of communite and small in this country, the National League of cities calls on congress to act, passed the bipartisan bill. Pass the bipartisan bill. [applause] ■nmy colleagues will touch on a number of priorities but i will touch on a couple. The ai Advisory Committee, demystifying the risks and ultimately harness the opportunity the rapidly evolving Technology Offers for our cities end, that committee will produce a playbook that will assist our cities nationwide to have curated insight, strategy and best practices for cities to make good use of artificial intelligence. An Advisory Committee will nikki lee. And we are very pleased to announce that google is a sponsor of the effort. Thank you for your support. It is just because i am a scientist, but that is something i really get excited about. And i know it can benefit our cities, towns, and villages meet immensely. I am pleased toce mayor karen Weston Broome of baton rouge, louisiana. Thank you mayor sanders. We have gathered here today in washington at a key moment. Last week, Congress Passed the first bipartisan appropriations 2024 funding levels for several important agencies and avoiding a partial government shutdown. We are thankful le parties in ce together on this, but the job is not done. National league of cities calls on to pass the second bipartisan appropriations package ahead of the march 22 deadline and avoidn. As a matter of principle, we oppose we oppose federal government shutdowns. At the local level, a shutdown of Municipal Services would be unthinkable. When there is a shutdown at the federal level, local governments keep going, picking up the slack and often takingn additional expenditures to maintain federal function such as health and Safety Operations and national monuments. While not every act of the funding package is what we wantt services from the federal government. We are now more than five months time to get this done. Without knowing the federal governmentlocal officials are fh uncertainty about how much we can count on from the federal government as we formulate our city budget. Our message is simple. Pass the funding bill. Keep government open. Give localety they need. [applause] said, i will now handed over to nlc, second Vice President from athens, ohio. [applause] patterson,u mayor weston mayor of athens, ohio and i am nlcs second Vice President. Nlc played a major role in getting bipartisan infrastructure law passed in ensuring the local government of all sizes have access to direct funding opportunities. Butnlc but the work is not done■mr after the law is passe. Knowing most all communities and cities and towns and villages, we do not have fulltime grant writers. Create a series of boot camps designed to help small cities like mine put together competitive applications for federal infrastructure grants. And they are absolutely working and my city is proof of it. [applause] as is typical, bringing everything home from nlc that i have learned, we participated in e rant writing boot camps and i am proud to report that the city of athens and several communities in southern ohio 12. 5 million to build new electric vehicle chargingayton, ohio. [applause] ■othis funding will have a positive impact on real lives and by filling critical gaps in the ev charging network. My community is not alone. To date, camps and have been awarded 83 million. [applause] and it does not end there because more is expected soon. So i want to thank congress, i certainly want to thank President Biden for enacting the bipartisan infrastructure law, and i want to thank nlc and the local infrastructure hub for ensuring that cities like mine have access to Game Changing infrastructureunding. And to alle at the conference, i want to encourage you all to take advantag ee and check this, free boot camps. A free. [laughter] 9fs]if you visit the local infrastructure hub booth here at the conference, you can register your city and take advantage of the hubs today. With tt, is truly my pleasure to hand things over to nlc past president and my dear friends, mayor Victoria Woodward of tacoma, washington. [applause] thank you, mayor patterson. As he told you, i am the proud mayor of tacoma, washington, but more importantly more probably the past president of nlc. It patterson just talked about of the wonderful aspects of the bipartisan infrastructure law and i will discuss another, the affordable conductivity program. ■athe Amazing Program has provid more than 22 million low income households with a monthly 30 discount on Home Broadband service, making a huge difference in the lives of our residents on the economic f our communities. But without congressional action, this program will run out of funding next month. Abruptly cutting off Broadband Service for millions of families year. An especially■c and we learned through the pandemic how important conductivity is to all families. Calls on congress to pass the bipartisan affordable conductivity program eensi and s connected well congress determines the longterm future of the program. What we know about the program is that it works. Families no longer have to drive to a parking lot to connect to someones wifi or sit outside a school, trying to connect to the wifi. It truly gives families the opportunity for kids to b home r families to be able to work from home in this new environment. With t■ hat, i am going to turnt over to the best executive director in the universe, none other then the National League of cits director, mr. Clarence anthony. [applause] good morning. Washington,■x d. C. , are you reay for over 3000 municipal officials throughout america . They better get ready because the cities are in town. The Administration Needs to know the cities are in town. Ngress, we are going to be on the hill on wednesday, talking about the need of cities, and villages. And we are going to make sure that all the issues we spoke of in this press conference, that you hear about, because they are rtnot just for the national leae of cities, but for our residents. That is why for 100 years, from 1924 to 2024, at the National League of cities has had an impact on our nation. And guess what . The next hundred years, we will continue to have a great impact on our nation. We came from all over america. Louisiana, washington state, california, georgia, iowa, maryland,■ texas, icu well here. I you here. And i want to thank you all again because nlc is in washington, d. C. And cities and towns and villages all over america are here today as well. With that, the only thing i was supposed to doere was say, are there any questions from the press . But there is no way that the joy of us being here, we were not going to express that. Today, any members of the press have any questions . Excellent. Have none . All right. Thank you all so much and please enjoy the deep dive sessions that are going on and be ready for this afternoon, because that opening of the second general session will outstanding. Mr. President , thank you for your leadership. Lets have a great regular conference, ok . [applause] jobs, the economy, and transportation safety. This thank you, clarence and thank you presiden
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