Mayor Bill Saffo and members of city council are in Washington from Monday through Wednesday, with a host of meetings slated, including with Congressman David Rouzer, Senators Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, and several federal agencies, particularly the EPA, according to Councilman David Joyner.
It’s a busy three-day schedule that also includes professional development and ongoing education for councilmembers.
“So we have conference meetings today around policing and technology, around clean water, and around railroad systems. So we're also going to bring back some skills for our own toolboxes to just make Wilmington the best place it can be,” Joyner told WHQR.
It’s no secret that Wilmington is sending an all-Democratic delegation to Washington, where Republicans, including the region's representatives, control both houses of Congress and the White House. Joyner said that means focusing on where bipartisan work can get done.
“If you've ever visited the United States Capitol, you walk down the hallway, and you see some representatives who have, you know, very political flags or very political signs up beside their office, sort of staking out their position. And so the conversations can go in a couple of different ways. And I think our focus has always been to say, 'what can we focus on working together?' What can we achieve by having these meetings and taking something back to Wilmington, as opposed to beating a dead horse when people have positions that they have staked out which are not things that city government has the authority under North Carolina law to control,” Joyner said. “Natural disasters don't have a political party. Transportation doesn't have a political party. So those are some highline issues that we're going to be talking about this week.”
“I do my best to keep in mind that — I know we talk about it not being non-partisan, but when you go to work every day, regardless of where you work, everyone has a different opinion, but they work towards the common goal and get along. So that's what I focus on every day that I get up,” Clinton-Quintana said.
Environmental concerns, especially PFAS — the family of ‘forever chemicals,’ including GenX — have been a top issue for many years. Clinton-Quintana said they’d be meeting with officials at EPA headquarters on Wednesday to “discuss the support for federal PFAS rules and regulations and advocate for investment and research to increase our understanding of how PFAS harm people and the environment.”
The Trump administration has rolled back or delayed rules put in place under the Biden EPA, which had been celebrated by environmental advocates but criticized by some industry groups, including public utilities, as overly strict in ways that would pass filtration costs on to ratepayers (i.e., the public) instead of polluters.
Another issue is the ongoing funding struggle to replace the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. Joyner noted that, during last year’s conference, Senator Tillis was able to confirm that roughly a quarter-billion dollars in federal funding had been restored after being frozen in the first months of the Trump administration. While that grant was initially planned to cover half the cost of a new bridge, the estimated price tag for a replacement project has since doubled to over a billion dollars — leaving the unpopular option of a toll on the table.
Joyner said there would be conversations with Rouzer, Tillis, and Budd about additional funding for a range of transportation projects as the Wilmington region continues to grow.
With the bi-partisan ROAD to Housing Act passing the Senate last week, the issue of affordable housing seemed ripe for discussion.
“I think that's very likely to come up in our conversations, particularly with senators Tillis and Budd, to hear updates from them and their staff on where that stands and what that means for local communities, because it is very much a two-way conversation when we go into these meetings, us understanding their perspective and why legislation has been introduced and what it can mean, and then our response to that and how it would impact us on the ground,” Joyner said.
“And we definitely want to see Congress support affordable housing by protecting key housing and community development programs, including the Community Development Block program, the Home Investment Partnership Program, the Housing Choice Voucher Program, and the Veterans-Affairs Supportive Housing voucher program,” Clinton-Quintana added.
