REMARKS AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY - SANDY K. BARUAH, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF COMMERCE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT - CONFERENCE CALL WITH MEMBERS OF THE STRENGTHENING AMERICA’S COMMUNITIES ADVISORY COMMITTEE

MONDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2006

AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY

OPENING

Good afternoon, and thank you all for arranging your schedules to join me on this teleconference.

Before we begin, on a sad note, as you may have heard, one of your fellow Advisory Committee members – Jim West – passed away this past July. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

The purpose of this call is to:

1. Provide a status report on the implementation of the principles of the Strengthening America’s Communities Initiative.

2. And to formally wrap-up the Commerce Department’s Strengthening America’s Community Advisory Committee.

UPDATE

Let me begin by acknowledging that this call is overdue. We tried to do this call earlier a couple of times, but for one reason or another it had to be postponed, so I apologize for not being in touch in a more timely fashion.

Let me begin by bringing you up-to-speed on where the Strengthening America’s Communities Initiative stands as of today.

As you know, the Advisory Committee was appointed by Commerce Secretary Gutierrez in April 2005 to provide advice and recommendations to the Secretary for the implementation of the President’s Strengthening America’s Communities Initiative (SACI). As you also know, SACI was a bold – and not without controversy – Presidential initiative to fundamentally transform the Federal approach to community and economic development.

You all were brought together to advise the Administration on this bold initiative. You represent all corners of this country and the various professional endeavors that play an important role in regionally-driven community and economic development.

The report that you compiled and presented to the Secretary in July 2005 was a model for all other Federal Advisory Committees to follow.

• First, the report was of exceptional quality. The recommendations were far reaching, compelling, attracted public attention and generated a healthy debate.

• Second, your Committee demonstrated that people from varying backgrounds, regions of the country, and political ideas, could set smaller differences aside and focus on the big picture.

• And third, the SACI Advisory Committee did its work in record time – meeting, taking and considering public testimony, deciding on shared recommendations and writing it all up in a professional and attractive package in just a few months.

Your report was highly praised and widely disseminated on Capitol Hill and in the Administration. A year-and-a-half after its release, the Committee’s report continues to be cited in policy dialogues on economic and community development, and will continue to play an important role in shaping how leaders think about these issues in the 21st Century economy.

Of course, like some other bold attempts to reform the Federal Government, our good intentions were met with political reality. After a year of strong opposition by the Congress, the Commerce-led SACI effort came to a close. However, the Administration was not willing to let the good ideas and hard work of your Committee go unheeded.

So, while the Commerce Department ended its formal ownership of the Strengthening America’s Communities Initiative, and thus is shutting down this Advisory Committee, both Commerce and the Department of Housing and Urban Development are using the principles articulated in your report to shape future development policy. I’ll be introducing HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary Cornick in just a minute to provide you a summary of HUD’s use of your report.

COMMENTS FROM CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR

But, before I do, let me introduce our Chair Deborah Wince Smith. I’ve said this numerous times, and I’ll say it again, we were exceptionally fortunate to have Deborah Wince Smith, chair of the Council of Competitiveness, as our chair. She ran a tight ship and it is thanks to her hard work, professionalism and insight that our committee worked so very well. Deborah, the floor is yours…

Vice Chair Casey Hoffman, anything you’d like to add?

Member-at-large Mark Drabenstott, would you like to say anything?

TRANSITION TO HUD

To provide you a summary of how our Federal partners at HUD have used your ideas in initiatives they have advanced to improve the popular Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, I am pleased to introduce Mr. Carter Cornick, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations at HUD. Carter, the floor is yours…

Thank you Carter.

I would first like to applaud you all for not just the quality of your work, but for the speed with which you completed the Advisory Committee’s charge.

Thank you all for your service on this important Advisory Committee. And a special thanks to Advisory Committee Chair Deborah Wince-Smith, Vice Chair Casey Hoffman, and Mark Drabenstott. Your leadership is greatly appreciated.

OPEN DISCUSSION

From our perspective here at EDA, the Strengthening America’s Communities Advisory Committee has not only provided a world class set of recommendations for the future of economic development, it has also grown our family of close EDA friends. During my travels throughout the nation, I and other senior EDA officials have had the privilege to re-engage with the members of the Advisory Committee on issues in their own communities and regions:

All of you are now members of the EDA family, and I look forward to continuing to work closely with you all as we build strategies for 21st Century economic development.

I would now like to open the call up to everyone for your questions and comments.

(Following questions and comments)…

CLOSING

Finally, I would like to thank the EDA staff members who played key roles in the administration of the Strengthening America’s Communities Advisory Committee:

• Bob Olson, who served as the Designated Federal Officer, and

• Jedd Vertman and Bryan Borlik who supported the work of the Subcommittees.

On behalf of Commerce Secretary Gutierrez, thank you all again for your service on the Strengthening America’s Communities Advisory Committee. You can expect a letter of appreciation from the Secretary over the next couple of weeks.

I’m looking forward to seeing you throughout my travels across the nation, and during your visits to Washington. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any assistance to you.

Also, I would welcome the opportunity to participate in the public events of your respective organizations. Please do forward invitations if you think my participation could be of value to your meetings and conferences.

Thank you for joining me on this morning’s call. With that, I thank you for your time today, once again thank you for your service, and wish you and your loved ones a very happy holiday.

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