Health & Fitness
Supervisor Dave Roberts Delivers Why Counties Matter Message to Capitol Hill
A news report from my legislative trip to Washington DC last week.
Roberts joins more than 1,500 county officials to participate in 2013 NACo Legislative Conference
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Supervisor Dave Roberts delivered a strong Why Counties Matter message to Capitol Hill during the National Association of Counties’ (NACo) 2013 Legislative Conference, March 2-6, in Washington, D.C.
With talk of fiscal cliffs and sequestration cuts dominating the headlines, more than1,500 county officials from across the country gathered in the nation’s capital to demonstrate to Congress and federal officials that the nation’s 3,069 county governments provide the essential building blocks to create healthy, vibrant and safe communities. This includes supporting and maintaining key public infrastructure, transportation and economic development assets; creating and sustaining a skilled workforce to meet the needs of private industry; ensuring public health and public safety needs to protect the public; and implementing a broad portfolio of federal, state and local programs in a cost-effective and accountable manner.
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“Our message to Washington was to stop making it more difficult for county government to provide for our communities—work with us,” Roberts said. “They needed to hear us say that despite slow-recovering economy and the revenue challenges affecting all levels of government, counties are mandated by state constitution and federal law to provide essential services, and we do every day.”
Roberts also served as the County of San Diego for the Large Urban Cities Coalition and the National Immigration Task Force meetings.
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During the conference, NACo leadership and members met with dozens key Congressional and House and Senate committee offices on to deliver the Why Counties Matter message in person and offer to work collaboratively with their federal partners to meet the needs of the American people. Roberts met with Congressmembers Susan Davis, Duncan Hunter Jr., Scott Peters and Juan Vargas, and staff for Darrell Issa. Important federal issues affecting counties and communities discussed included: preserving the tax-exempt status of municipal bonds, replacing the sequestration—or across the board budget cuts and protecting the federal-state-local partnership for Medicaid.
