Working in partnership with 49 state municipal leagues, the Center for Federal Relations serves as both a resource and an advocate for the more than 19,000 cities, towns, and villages the organization represents. Advocacy efforts focus on advancing NLC’s annual legislative agenda, monitoring regulatory action and championing legal issues of national importance to local governments.
NLC’s federal advocacy efforts are central to its mission to protect municipal interests, promote federal investments in cities and towns, and ensure national attention to hometown priorities. Each year, NLC leadership—with input from membership, policy and advocacy committees, and Federal Relations staff—sets the organization’s annual legislative agenda, which helps to guide all advocacy efforts. Following are the top legislative priorities identified by NLC for this year.
One of NLC’s fundamental advocacy objectives is to ensure a strong system of federalism by strengthening relationships among federal, state, and local governments. NLC supports efforts to make the regulatory process more accessible and collaborative, involving local governments from the early stages of developing policy, rules, and regulations to ensure the inclusion of municipal priorities. Federal Relations staff works to fight unfunded mandates, preserve local authority, and maximize state and local flexibility in the implementation of national policies and programs.
Recognizing that the federal court system is responsible for much of the law affecting cities and their scope of authority, NLC's Legal Advocacy Program is a complement to the organization's legislative outreach on behalf of cities. Through the Program, NLC serves as an advocate for local governments on legal issues of national importance and provides support to cities and towns involved in significant litigation or administrative adjudication that could affect municipal organization, operation, powers, duties, or financing.