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| | Arkansas lawmakers help launch Congressional Delta Caucus
Thursday, Jun 24, 2004 By Alison Vekshin Stephens Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- Five Arkansas lawmakers on Wednesday joined a new congressional group formed to secure funding for the impoverished Mississippi Delta. The initial meeting of the Congressional Delta Caucus, however, was sparsely attended. "We have got to take the lead in developing the Delta into the prosperous region that it desires and it deserves to be," Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., a caucus co-chairwoman and one of five members to show up. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Prescott, also attended. About half of the 29 Arkansas counties Ross represents are in the Delta. The caucus's members include 12 senators and 20 House members from the eight states that have counties in the Delta. Besides Lincoln and Ross, Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Reps. Marion Berry, D-Gillett, and Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, joined the group. The caucus will focus on securing federal funds for health care, jobs, economic development, affordable housing, poverty and infrastructure improvements, the leaders said. "For generation after generation, we've watched the Delta region lag behind pretty much the rest of the country," Ross said. Lending support was Pete Johnson, federal co-chairman of the Delta Regional Authority, a federal-state partnership created in 2000 to spur economic development in the region. In its first two years of operations, the authority funded about 200 projects at $35 million that leveraged an additional $170 million, Johnson told the panel. The authority is now focusing on drawing tourists to the region, he added. This year, the House has earmarked $2.1 million for the authority as part of its 2005 energy and water appropriations bill, less than half the $5 million amount enacted last year. The Senate has yet to take up its appropriations bill. Congress appropriated the authority $8 million in 2003, and $10 million in 2002, said Fred Cohen, the authority's finance director. Ross attributed this year's smaller appropriation to an increased focus on funding the Iraq war and "massive tax cuts for the wealthy." -- 30 -- |
