The Brookings Institution has identified the nation’s most economically challenged major cities. These cities suffer from loss of high paying manufacturing jobs, population decline, erosion of their local tax base and a concomitant inability to provide needed municipal services. Sixty five percent of these cities are located in the northeast-midwest region. The Institute, working with a specially created task force of the Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition, develops policy recommendations that these legislators can turn into federal legislation to assist these cities. Particular issue areas include: transportation and infrastructure, economic and workforce development, and housing and vacant properties.

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