Credit Card bill advanced out of Committee

This week, we were able to achieve Committee passage of the Credit Card Bill of Rights, which I am proud to co-sponsor. The bill will be considered on the House floor next week.

The President sat down with credit card executives this week at the White House to ask them to voluntarily change some of their aggressive and unfair policies. This bill puts teeth to that request. The Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights protects all of us against abusive practices of credit card companies. The bill addresses the most egregious policies like excessive credit card fees, sky-high interest rates, and unfair, incomprehensible agreements that credit card companies revise at will.

These practices are never acceptable, but are particularly horrible during these hard times when so many families are in economic peril.

For decades the government has let the credit card companies take advantage of their customers. I am proud to stand with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (NY-14) who has worked to advance this legislation despite opposition from corporate interests.

This is a very good bipartisan and common-sense bill. I look forward to its passage by the full House next week.

Going to Greensburg

This is an exciting time for Kansas City. In order to recover from the current economic downturn, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) to stimulate job creation, with much of the focus on environmental sustainability and energy efficiency. As you are probably aware, Kansas City has taken the bold and innovative step of creating a Green Impact Zone in the heart of the urban core to concentrate and deepen the impact of the ARRA funds in a particularly hard-hit area of Kansas City. These funds will help these neighborhoods rebuild green, saving energy and creating a more sustainable environment.

You may remember seeing stories in the news two years ago about Greensburg, Kansas, which was almost completely destroyed by a powerful tornado in May 2007. Greensburg took the historic step of committing to rebuild the entire town using green principles. I am convinced that we, as individuals working to rebuild the Green Impact Zone, can benefit from the wealth of experience and knowledge that the people of Greensburg now have.

And so tomorrow morning, bright and early, I will be leading a delegation of Green Impact Zone residents and community leaders to Greensburg. This fact-finding trip will, I hope, help build a comfort level with “green” and allow local residents to talk with the residents of Greensburg about the advantages of green.

I truly believe the problems faced by urban core, primarily African American and poor residents of the Green Impact Zone are remarkably similar to the issues faced by the rural residents of Greensburg. I think we will find a great deal of common ground, and join these plains pioneers as believers in green.

I have never been to Greensburg either, and so I am excited to see this model first hand.

Wish us luck!

Climate Center takes its first step

Today, I was proud to officially announce that the City of Kansas City, Missouri, through its Parks and Recreation Department, has been awarded a grant from the Economic Development Administration (EDA) to study and plan for the development of a Climate Sustainability Center.

It is exciting to stand on the site and think about the opportunity to both change the way the world thinks about green and change the way we have historically seen the Eastside.
While was standing next to the yet undone piece of Brush Creek, it occurred to me that this creek was why I got involved in politics in the first place.

Specifically, it was September 17, 1977 that prompted my entrance in the race for City Council. Many of you can remember that a storm caused flash flooding as Brush Creek quickly spilled its bounds and flooded this entire area. In the morning, twelve people were dead and 5 feet of floodwater covered where we were standing this afternoon. I couldn’t understand how in a major metropolitan area 12 people could die due to rain.

And so I ran for City Council. And I was fortunate as Mayor to secure funding to nearly completely reconstruct Brush Creek and build the Bruce Watkins Drive.

Because of the stimulus we now have money to finish this portion of Brush Creek and replace the aging bridge that spans it now.

And if you drive on the Watkins, while the road is beautiful the neighborhoods along it are still crumbling.

But with the Green Impact Zone we hope to turn around those neighborhoods, reinvest in people and jobs and turn the corner we have long been looking to turn. Right here. Right now.

And on top of completing these long over due projects, today we stood on a cluttered piece of land to announce a project that represents the largest investment east of Troost since the Brush Creek Project and the Bruce Watkins Drive.

As you all know, I like big projects.

This, my friends, is a big project.

National Attention on Green Impact Zone

On Monday, Van Jones, the President’s Special Counsel for green jobs praised the Green Impact Zone plan on CNN’s Larry King Live. In a conversation with Robert Redford about grass roots efforts to go green with stimulus money, the founder of Green for All said:

“One of the things I think is important for people to understand, when you talk about grass roots, let's look at Kansas City right now. There is a tremendous effort right now, Representative Emanuel Cleaver said let's take stimulus money from the Obama recovery plan and give it to ordinary people. They decided in Kansas City to take 150 blocks, blighted, tough neighborhoods, weatherize every home there that needs it, fix mass transit and put people to work. Those are green solutions. They're going to save people money as well as helping planet Earth.” -Van Jones President’s Special Counsel for Green Jobs

The nation is taking notice and this is well deserved praise for the great deal of hard work everyone is doing in the Impact Zone. Congratulations!