Reid calls for more federal aid to help cities

Monday, March 12, 2001 | 10:55 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- America's cities share problems that the federal government should help solve, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said today in an address to the National League of Cities.

Reid used the event as a chance to promote several of his legislative initiatives: cleaning up urban polluted industrial "brownfield" sites and establishing better drinking water infrastructure in small towns.

Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., introduced a bill that would funnel $750 million in federal grant money to small communities for water delivery improvements.

"These are issues we need to work on together," Reid said in a speech to the league, which represents more than 18,000 municipalities.

In an off-script remark, Reid chided President Bush's $1.6 trillion tax cut. As league president and Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer was thanking Reid for his comments, a smiling Reid interrupted to ask Archer if he agreed that Congress should commit to spending money on cities, as opposed to "giving Bill Gates a tax break."

Archer, a fellow Democrat, didn't bite. "I'm not going to go there," Archer said, laughing.

Reid, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, on Saturday delivered a Democratic response to Bush's weekly national radio address. Reid criticized the size of the Bush tax cuts and called Bush's plan "a massive and irresponsible tax cut designed to give huge amounts of money to a handful of their rich campaign donors." -