National Urban League n Obama Administration Scorecard n www.nul.org4JOBS & THE ECONOMY / continued FailuresEconomic Development of Urban Centers FAIRThe Obama administration did not advance a comprehensive urban policy to strategically target federal resources to address urban economic distress, which is most often reflected in inequality in employment, income, wealth, housing and most other measures of social well-being.With the advocacy of the National Urban League and the Congressional Black Caucus, the initial American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (otherwise known as “the stimulus”), included a limited set of targeted initiatives aimed at urban communities hardest hit by the Great Recession. At our urging and assistance, the president introduced the American Jobs Act in 2011, which would have extended and expanded those targeted initiatives, but he did not aggressively advocate for its passage after introducing it as part of a joint session of Congress. [Note: The president did have many initiatives that did target urban and low-income populations, such as My Brother’s Keeper, expanding apprenticeships, private sector summer jobs and Promise Zones, but they were fragmented and were not supported by federal funding, which the president could have included in his budget requests.]Missed OpportunitiesRep. Jim Clyburn’s 10-20-30 Plan for Rural Development FAIRWhile initially applying Rep. Clyburn’s 10-20-30 plan to three rural development investment programs in the Recovery Act in 2009, the president missed a key opportunity to take advantage of bipartisan support for this concept to improve upon the plan, so that it would target more federal resources to communities grappling with persistent poverty in urban, as well as rural communities, rather than only in counties.SUPERIOREXCELLENTGOODFAIRPOOR54321
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