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Subject: New Members Seen Boosting Urban Caucus; Minorities, Women May Focus on
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 04:39:11 EST
Message-ID: <15.1992Nov13.043912@AmeriCast.com>

New Members Seen Boosting Urban Caucus; Minorities, Women May
Focus on Cities<By Kenneth J. Cooper=Washington Post Staff Writ-
er=

The coming influx of minority and female members to the House
could boost the clout of a fledgling urban caucus and increase
pressure for federal aid to the nation's cities, according to
Democratic leaders from urban areas.

Proposals for enterprise zones and business tax incentives were
passed following the Los Angeles riots, but the urban aid was
overwhelmed in a broader tax package that President Bush vetoed
last week.

Rep. Barbara B. Kennelly (D-Conn.), who represents the Hartford
area, said that if "blacks, Latinos and women form some kind of
urban coalition" they could have an impact on the shape of urban
aid legislation. In a freshman class of 110, about 40 are women
or racial minorities.

Kennelly said the bipartisan Urban Caucus formed early last year
did not have enough members - there were 77 - to secure more aid.
"It's hard to pull people together," she said.

Rep. Thomas M. Foglietta (D-Pa.), Urban Caucus chairman, said
there had never been an urban caucus in a House that counts among
its many caucuses ones for members from rural districts, the Sun
Belt and border areas.

"In the past, there wasn't this terrible anti-city feeling that
we have now," Foglietta said. "It (an urban caucus) wasn't nec-
cessary in the Roosevelt administration, the Kennedy administra-
tion, the Johnson administration and even the Nixon administra-
tion, when we had revenue sharing."

Foglietta said President-elect Clinton's defeat of Bush would
make it easier to get urban aid signed into law. "I think we're
going to have a much more sympathetic ear than we had in the
past," the Philadelphia Democrat said.

Jobs creation and expansion of health coverage will be top prior-
ities of the caucus in the next Congress, also Clinton priori-
ties.

Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), vice chairman of the Congressional
Black Caucus, said the net increase of 13 black House members
would contribute to growth in the Urban Caucus. In the last
Congress, 17 of 26 black members joined the Urban Caucus.  The
new black members are from southern or border states, and several
like Eva M. Clayton (D-N.C.) and Sanford D. Bishop Jr. (D-Ga.)
represent heavily rural areas. Others like Robert Scott (D-Va.),
Melvin Watt (D-N.C.) and Carrie P.  Meek (D-Fla.)  were elected
from mostly urban districts.

Watt, whose predominantly black district connects cities along an
interstate highway, has billed himself as the first urban
congressman from North Carolina.

Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the first Hispanic elected to Congress
from the state, said he hoped that African-American, Hispanic and
other elected officials in the freshman class who have represent-
ed cities would help build a congressional consensus for urban
aid.

Besides being a state senator, Menendez served as mayor of Union
City, N.J., where 60,000 people live densely in 1.2 square miles.
An urban agenda, he said, should help make rental housing afford-
able and "put more police on the streets" to combat crime and
drugs.

Menendez said urban aid could "reprioritize existing dollars" and
require businesses that benefit from tax incentives to make dis-
tressed areas where they are located "the first source" of em-
ployees.

Another new Hispanic member, Nydia M. Velazquez (D-N.Y)., has
also advocated a coalition of minority and women members to press
for urban programs.

Foglietta acknowledged that many of the 24 newly elected women
represent largely suburban districts, where residents can be in-
different to city problems. But he said those suburbanites ought
to realize "the city's problems are reaching out into the suburbs
now." Menendez cited interdependence as another reason for
lawmakers from the suburbs to support urban aid. "The relation-
ship between suburban and urban has got to be made clear. We can-
not run from each other," he said.

In the last Congress, the 77 members of the Urban Caucus included
11 women and three Hispanics.

There were also a dozen Republicans. The membership ran the ideo-
logical spectrum, from conservative Republicans C. Christopher
Cox of California and Scott Klug of Wisconsin to liberal Demo-
crats Ronald V. Dellums of California and Barney Frank of Mas-
sachusetts.<02:13 11-13C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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