mr. chairman , i thank the chairman for yielding me this time .  as a member of the save our cities caucus , which is chaired by the gentleman from ohio ( mr. turner )  , i rise in strong support of full funding of the community development block grant and community services block grant .  our cities are hardest hit by the tough social problems of this age : poverty , drug abuse , underachievement .  and i am proud that republicans have long understood that the federal government has a responsibility to support our cities .  they are the life blood of our commerce , but locally controlled federal dollars are far more powerful than arbitrary federal programs .  it is extremely important that we fully fund these critical programs because they preserve the local power of local governments to fix holes in the safety net , to assure the services that people need .  in new britain , my hometown ; in meridien or danbury , connecticut ; or in waterbury , the largest city in my district , community development block grant funds and community service block grant funds leverage several times their value to provide child care , elder care , literacy programs , substance abuse treatment programs , after-school programs .  they help those cities demolish buildings that are a blight or that harbor drug dealers .  they help clean up brownfields .  they improve fire stations .  they improve parks .  they rebuild sidewalks .  they reconstruct streets .  they work to make our cities able to attract the economic development that provides jobs and a healthy urban environment .  so between the community development block grant and the community services block grant , the federal government has traditionally contributed , and under republican leadership , generously , to assure the safety net in the cities and the economic strength of our urban communities .  so i thank the gentleman from iowa ( mr. nussle )  for recognizing , as the majority of republicans do , the importance of these flexible block grant programs to our urban communities .  