Anne Russett, Evan Barrett, Steve Brown, and Brian Craig just returned from The Legislative and Policy Conference and Planners Day on Capitol Hill in DC. They attended discussions Sunday and Monday on a range of current issues: threats to CDBG funding, supporting the Safe Communities Act (H.R.3524), the latest with eminent domain discussions and bills, and the importance of implementing disaster planning in to comprehensive plan drafting.

On Tuesday 31st January Evan, Steve and Brian met with Senator Grassley, Rep. Jim Leach, and staff members from Senator Harkins office. We made them aware of the program at Iowa and advocated APA's position of "no move, no cuts" of the CDBG funding and restoring to the FY '04 level; asked them (specifically Leach) to Co-sponsor HR 3524, and discussed the importance of planning in all aspects of community development especially to impress upon communities to amend comp plans to include disaster mitigation strategies.