For cities across America to remain competitive, and to continue to create healthy and vibrant communities, our nation needs to ensure that we have a trained and skilled workforce. The U.S. will need to hire 2.3 million more healthcare workers by 2025 to meet the growing workforce gaps that exist in every occupation across the

You may have seen headlines that a federal court handed a partial victory to advocates for net neutrality recently. But what exactly did the court do, and what does that mean for cities? Net neutrality requires internet service providers to treat all Internet communications the same and not block, speed up or slow down any

On August 19, 2019, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed a change to the Fair Housing Act’s 2013 Rule on Disparate Impact, which would make it harder for local governments to enforce fair housing. As it stands, the rule currently allows potential victims of housing discrimination to challenge the policies or practices underlying

Earlier this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released proposed revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule to reduce lead exposure in drinking water. Under the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations: Proposed Lead and Copper Rule Revisions, the agency aims to identify the most impacted areas, strengthen treatment requirements, replace lead service lines, increase

Every hour, 26% of local governments report a cyberattack. But according to a new NLC analysis, done in partnership with the Public Technology Institute, nearly a quarter don’t have a cybersecurity plan that is designed to protect government information systems from attack/provide steps for recovery in case of attack. Fortunately, we have recommendations for how you can

Housing affordability is about more than the list price of a home. San Antonio, for example, is one of the fastest growing large cities in the United States. The region’s rapid economic and population growth has caused local housing costs to increase faster than AMI for nearly two decades. For residents, that means homes are increasingly

By Cory Poris Plasch, Dr. Michael Adams, and Carroll G. Robinson How can we encourage young adults – particularly those of color, an often underrepresented demographic – to engage in the election process? That was the question researchers from Texas Southern University (TSU) and Polco sought to answer. TSU, a Historically Black College or University

There are countless reasons why supporting the early childhood workforce is central to an economically thriving community. Much like construction workers shape our infrastructure through building our cities’ roads, bridges, and buildings, the early childhood workforce plays an integral role in shaping the development of our most valuable resource—young children. Municipal leaders recognize the importance

There are more than 18 million veterans currently living in the United States, making up roughly 7.3 percent of the population. With Veterans Day approaching, here’s how local leaders can work to ensure that all people who honorably served our country have access to a safe home, designed to meet their specific needs. In some

In August, Congress approved a bipartisan two-year budget deal for fiscal years 2020 and 2021. The agreement raises overall spending caps for defense and non-defense discretionary programs by $321 billion over two years. Funding for domestic programs will increase by 4.5%, or $27 billion, over the FY19 level. NLC’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget tracker tracks specific FY20 spending