Part of Community Action's History

Anyone who has attended my history seminar or has been in Community Action for a number of years knows that in 1994, House Republicans unveiled a campaign document known as the Contract with America. That document laid out the Republican goals for reducing government and eliminating a number of domestic programs. CSBG was number one on their hit parade. Yet, in 1996, Speaker Newt Gingrich and other key House Republicans reversed their position and actually invested substantially in CSBG and the Community Action network. It would be the largest domestic increase of any program in 1996.

For some time, I have watched the ebbs and flows of Newt Gingrich’s fortunes. His recent participation in the Republican nominating process for president is the latest. In the back of my mind this entire time, I had a thought that at some point someone from the press would ask me about the events in 1996. I don’t know why I had this thought. It seems like a long time ago and such a minor point in Congressional budgeting. But yesterday, the day arrived when I was asked about the threatened budget cuts and subsequent investments in our program in 1996. I received calls from not one but many members of the press wanting to know about Newt’s involvement with our network, and in particular the funding of CSBG in 1996. This is tricky. It was a long time ago. Now we are being interjected into a hyper sensitive and volatile Republican nominating process. The risk of being misunderstood by the press and by others worries me. The risk of being construed as supporting Gingrich or not supporting the Obama Administration worries me. This is a tough situation.

Situations like this come up when one gets involved in new things, when one seeks out new experiences. Weatherization was part of the 2008 Democratic nominating debate during the primaries. Clinton introduced the program into the dialogue and soon others, including Obama, were talking about it. Now I think about the program and wonder what are the up sides to being included in these dialogues? What are the down sides? What if there are similar opportunities for CSBG, Community Action, and poverty? It is interesting in life, even when you feel you have been around the track a couple of times, how new experiences continue to arise. What I discover for myself about some of these recent experiences is that there are few people who I can turn to for advice. At times, I do not know who to contact. I wonder what you think about this current situation of the press inquiring about the relationship that Newt had with CSBG funding in 1996. How would you handle this?