New White House Memo: Developing Effective Place-Based Policies for the FY 2011 Budget
The new White House memo (link below) is significant because it went to all executive departments/agencies and was authored jointly by the heads of OMB (Peter Orszag), the Domestic Policy Council (Melody Barnes), the Office of Urban Affairs (Adolfo Carrion), and the National Economic Council (Larry Summers). It is unusual for so many presidential advisors sign onto a policy statement.
Essentially, the document’s five pages describe how the administration plans to begin investing in PLACE again, as opposed to PEOPLE, which has been the focus of federal domestic funding ideas for the past several decades. To drive home this shift in thinking, the document states, “Our immediate objective is to develop proposals for the FY2011 Budget that advance this Administration’s policy priorities in the most effective ways whether by improving place-based strategies already operating or by adopting such strategies…OMB will weigh these questions throughout the process of policy development for the President’s 2011 Budget.”
This is significant because cities are often focused on investing in physical infrastructure or “place.” Perhaps we might see some effects on our cities’ bottom lines from the federal funding level. Stay tuned.
