APA advocates policies at the state and federal level to improve quality of life and planning in the nation's communities. Each year APA adopts a set of legislative priorities that translate broad policy guide principles into a federal action agenda. The primary priorities are those areas in which advocacy efforts will be concentrated for maximum impact, while the secondary priorities reflect other areas of interest in which APA may partner with other organizations rather than taking a leadership role.

Americans believe that the federal government can be a vital partner in promoting community livability and smart growth. APA calls on Congress to take these steps to help make great communities happen:

National Primary

• Protect Local Planning: Oppose efforts to expand "takings" doctrines and federal attempts to preempt local planning authority.
  
  
• Ensure water quality and improve water infrastructure investment: Increase federal funding for water infrastructure, increase accountability, target investment, and promote improved planning in sensitive areas.
  
  
• Reauthorize the Farm Bill: Incorporate sound planning principles and support increased land conservation, open space preservation, and rural planning.
  
  
• Support Community Redevelopment: Provide full funding for federal brownfields cleanup and redevelopment programs, modernize federal brownfields initiatives, and expand tax incentives for redevelopment.

National Secondary

• Expand Housing Choice: Address the nation's affordable housing crisis by adopting new tools including a national housing trust fund, tax incentives, and other mechanisms that complement and facilitate efforts to develop and manage quality housing affordable to low-income households.
  
  
• Support Rail and Public Transportation: Provide additional support for Amtrak in this year's reauthorization and expand investment in transit.
  
  
• Support Energy Choice: Include support for sustainability and energy efficiency initiatives including “green building” practices that use environmentally conscious design and construction.
  
  
• Fund Needed Infrastructure: Increase support for repair and modernization of vital existing municipal infrastructure in keeping with initiatives to revitalize and reinvest in downtown, developed neighborhoods, historic buildings, urban areas, and first suburbs.
  
  
• Expand Parks and Open Space: Provide resources and incentives for land conservation and park development; promote new public health strategies that address the linkage between land use, air quality, and overall physical health.
  
  
• Build Safe Communities: Support programs to provide resources for local governments to improve mitigation planning, modernize planning and building regulations, conduct critical infrastructure threat assessments, and acquire technology for advanced visualization and scenario planning. Ensure adequate implementation of national flood insurance reform and continue to support key disaster mitigation programs, such as flood map modernization and pre- and post-disaster mitigation funding.

Want more information? Want to stay on top of the latest developments on Capitol Hill related to planning and livability? Read APA's free biweekly e-mail newsletter, APA Advocate.