Each year, the Governmental Affairs and Policy Committee, ICMA's member-based committee tasked with reviewing current and proposed federal (and in some cases state) legislative and judicial action for impacts on local governments, identifies the key policy priorities for the association and its members. Using this list as a guide, the ICMA Policy Team works with its state and local government partners in the Big 7 and other organizations, such as the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and the State and Local Legal Center (SLLC), to advocate at the national level on behalf of local governments and the communities they serve. Here are the current policy and governmental affairs advocacy efforts that ICMA is been involved in:
Disaster Recovery:
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FEMA Seeks Comments on New Natural Hazard Mitigation Strategy
For every $1 spent on hazard mitigation, the nation can save $6 in future disaster costs, according to a new draft report released by FEMA on January 11, 2018. Comments on the draft Investment Strategy (available at https://www.fema.gov/national-mitigation-framework will be accepted from January 11-March 22, 2018. Comments can be sent by email to fema-nmis@fema.dhs.gov or through the IdeaScale site at https://fema.ideascale.com/a/ideas/recent/campaign-filter/byids/campaigns/60968.
Pension Funding:
- Public Pension Network letter to the Senate opposing the public pension requirements contained in the Puerto Rico Assistance Act of 2015 - S. 2381 (December 2015)
- Coalition letter to the House of Representatives opposing the Public Employee Pension Transparency Act (April 2013)
- Statement for the Record at a Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Oversight Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives on Transparency and Funding of State and Local Pension Plans (May 2011)
Finance:
- Press Statement on Infrastructure Debate (February 2018)
- Letter to congressional leaders supporting maintaining the use of private activity bonds and advance refunding bonds (December 2017)
- ICMA Opposes Provisions of Senate Tax Bill Relating to State and Local Government Financing (November 2017)
- ICMA's Response to a request for information on the Department of Labor's overtime rule (September 2017)
- Big 7 Tax Bill Comments (July 2017)
- State, Local Governments Urge Congress to Preserve State and Local Tax Deduction and Tax-Exempt Municipal Bonds in Tax Reform Efforts (April 2017)
- Big 7 Letter in Support of Classifying Municipal Securities as High-Quality Liquid Assets (April 2017)
- Oppose Repeal of Section 978 of The Dodd-Frank Act (January 2017)
- Big 7 Letter on protecting Municipal bonds tax exemption (January 2017)
- Letter to the IRS on the issue of Political Subdivisions (May 2016)
- Joint letter to House of Representatives requesting a floor vote on HR 2209, which would direct the FDIC to classify municipal securities as High-Quality Liquid Assets (HQLA) (December 2015)
- ICMA joins Coalition letter supporting Unfunded Mandate Reform (November 2015)
- ICMA joins Public Finance Network letter in support of Federal Reserve rule treating municipal securities as High-Quality Liquid Assets (July 2015)
- ICMA joins Coalition letter opposing Permanent Ban on Internet Taxes (June 2015)
- Joint letter to Speaker Boehner requesting cosponsorship of HR2208 to classify municipal securities as HQLA (May 2015)
- Coalition urges Congress to take action on Marketplace Fairness Legislation (December 2014)
- ICMA joins Coalition Opposing Permanent Ban on Internet Taxes (July 2014)
- ICMA joins Big 7 in Encouraging Congress to Take Action on Marketplace Fairness (March 2014)
- Coalition letter to the Senate Finance Committee on the Tax-Exempt Status of Municipal Bonds (July 2013)
- Coalition letter to Senate on Tax-Exempt Status of Municipal Bonds (March 2013)
- Coalition letter to President Obama and Speaker John Boehner on retaining the current federal government income tax exclusion for municipal bond interest during year-end negotiations and averting the “fiscal cliff.” (December 2012)
Education:
- Coalition urges Congress to pass the Every Child Achieves Act and complete the Elementary and Secondary Education Reauthorization (July 2015)
- ICMA and national organizations urge Senate leadership to act upon the Elementary and Secondary Act (September 2013)
- ICMA and Big 7 urge Congress to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (January 2013)
Transportation:
- ICMA Urges Action on Transportation Funding (July 2014)
- Guiding Principles on Surface Transportation (released April 2011)
Intergovernmental Affairs:
- ICMA Statment in opposition to HR 2887 "The No Regulation Without Representation Act of 2017" (July 2017)
- Big 7 Memo on Proposed Roadmap for Speaker’s Task Force on Intergovernmental Affairs (July 2017)
- ICMA Statement on Congressional Intergovernmental Affairs Task Force (Aug 2017)
- H.R. 2 Protect Interstate Commerce Act Opposition Letter (May 2018)
Census 2020:
