A revivified Office of Urban Affairs would build on the assessments of “place-based” policies that the White House Office of Management and Budget required each agency to make in this year’s budget. It would expand these assessments to evaluate how each agency’s budget impacts cities. Indeed, we (yes, the public) should know how every budget and how every congressional bill will impact cities.

The Office should also assume responsibility for congressional outreach. One of the biggest impediments to reorienting the federal government to cities is Congress, which in all sorts of ways and for all sorts of reasons prejudices cities. It is quite clear that the Obama administration understands the importance of urban areas. Making the case to suburban members of Congress that strengthening cities is in the interests of their districts, as well, will be indispensable if the White House wants to move on more ambitious legislative projects, from changing the funding formula for public transit to launching a national infrastructure bank.

The Office should build on its work highlighting local-level policies. Certainly, budgetary and political constraints will prevent the administration from launching many programs that would benefit cities. But connecting city leaders throughout the country with good progressive policies that work (as is happening with the Philadelphia Fresh Food Financing Initiative) would not only benefit local populations, but lay the groundwork for broader progressive change by achieving policy victories at no expense to the administration. There are myriad opportunities for minimal amounts of federal funds to help such policies get off the ground, but in other cases a bit of expertise and federal support are sufficient. The administration can champion its broader policy goals without having to expend the political capital necessary for victory on Capitol Hill.

Finally, the Office should take on a greater role in explaining the successes of the stimulus package which, while disadvantaging urban areas, still had an important impact on cities and prevented many from cutting jobs and services. Vice President Biden is the administration’s point man on the stimulus, holding almost weekly meetings with mayors and governors about stimulus implementation, mediating disputes and troubleshooting when problems emerge. This role has been vastly underreported and underappreciated.

Yet, the Office of Urban Affairs should be charged with making clear that the economic recovery of the country is linked to that of its cities. In fact, right now the critical government services – from libraries to public transit to public safety – that city residents rely on are being cut, undermining people’s trust that government can provide for those who are struggling, not to mention make affordable health insurance available to tens of millions of people. To the extent that the stimulus prevented such cuts and provided for disadvantaged populations, the Office should publicize these impacts. To the extent the stimulus failed to do this, the Office must become an advocate for additional assistance.

It is, in fact, in an era of limits both fiscal and political that the Office of Urban Affairs can shine. The Office must be the face of cities at the federal level.