EC from DC - April 5, 2013

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I am never surprised, but always grateful, for the huge hearts and generous spirits shown by residents in Missouri's Fifth District. This week, I had the honor of announcing $600,000 in grants from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines for two local housing projects.

We need look no further than Cliff (pictured above) to know how successful – and necessary – these programs are.

I thought of Cliff as we announced these grants – a $300,000 grant to Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) and a $300,000 grant to the Kansas City Rescue Mission Men's Center. Cliff told the group how he had struggled with a drug and alcohol addiction, and homelessness, for years. He found the KC Rescue Mission and is now clean and sober. He is also in school studying to be a paralegal and will teach a Sunday school class this week.

The grant money comes from the bank's Affordable Housing Program. The money will be used by NHS to repair and rehab homes to help homeowners who are not able to afford basic repairs. The Rescue Mission will use the funds to continue safely providing housing and support, serving nearly 100 men each day.

What a fun morning this week working on a public service announcement with my new friend, Cocoa. This is an effort by the city to encourage everyone to get their dog or cat licensed, so if they are lost, they can more easily be found, and ultimately, returned to their owner. Pet licenses are only $10 a year, or $27 for three years. You can find out more information on this by visiting www.kcmo.org/animal. You can get a sneak peak at the video by visiting: /.

Times are tough enough without paying some of your hard-earned dollars in taxes when you don't need to! There are tax benefits available to low-to-moderate income workers and their families that many people don't know about or take advantage of.

In the Kansas City metropolitan area there are more than a dozen Volunteer Income Tax Assistance sites (VITA) open right now to help people file their 2012 taxes. And perhaps best of all – it's free. Qualifying households can have one of the IRS-certified volunteers help them on site or can do it themselves online. Volunteers say they are seeing huge numbers of people who qualify for tax credits they didn't know were available to them. And we know every dollar certainly counts.

To find out more, you can visit: www.irs.gov and search volunteer income tax assistance, or www.unitedwaygkc.org.

Getting things done in Congress is in no way like a game of solitaire, it is more like a 435 piece symphonic orchestra. The brass section, as good as it may sound, cannot by itself perform a concert. Likewise, as right as each political caucus believes it is, in the configuration in which we find ourselves, a symphonic sound must be the goal. Two continuous conflicting music chords coming from the stage will cause the orchestras approval rating to plummet. Who, pray tell, wants to repeatedly hear conflicting sounds every evening?

After all these years, I have found that one hand still washes the other.