119th Congress

Responding to recent moves by the White House to deploy National Guard troops in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., U.S. Rep. Sam Liccardo is leading an effort in Congress to require the president to submit a detailed report whenever such deployments occur.

Following the first meeting of Congressman Sam Liccardo’s regional Wildfire Resilience Partnership, leaders from Los Gatos and Saratoga who were in attendance Aug. 29 at the Los Altos Community Center said that although there wasn’t much consensus, the stakeholders discussed their priorities to start narrowing down how the federal government can help.

“The purpose was to look for ways to work together with federal engagement to have a more coordinated approach to wildfire preparation, risk, mitigation and resiliency,” said Los Gatos Mayor Matthew Hudes in an interview.

It’s not often that Mountain View gets the chance to shape housing legislation that could have an impact far beyond its borders. But the city recently inspired the introduction of a bipartisan bill that could make it easier for municipalities to use federal funds for affordable housing.

As Democrats and Republicans in Congress remain at odds over everything from vaccines to immigration, they may have found one issue they can actually agree on: building more housing.

U.S. Reps. Sam Liccardo, D-Calif., and Mike Flood, R-Neb., introduced legislation Tuesday aimed at making it easier for cities to use federal money to build affordable housing.

The Unleashing Needed Local Options to Construct and Keep Housing (UNLOCK) Act would loosen restrictions on how municipalities spend Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds.
Efforts stem from feedback gathered by the House Subcommittee on Housing, which sought input from local governments on ways to reduce red tape in federal housing programs.