Delta Grassroots Caucus Events

Credit Michael Hibblen/ KUAR News, Arkansas Public Radio; Former President Bill Clinton speaking to the Delta Grassroots Caucus on May 2, 2013, at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, Little Rock

U. S. Senator John Boozman, Arkansas, at a Delta Grassroots Caucus meeting at the US Capitol

Brad Cole, Executive Director of the Municipal League of Illinois; previously a senior aide to former Republican US Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, earlier Mayor of Carbondale, Illinois, veteran Delta regional advocate, speaking at the Delta regional conference in West Memphis, Arkansas on April 26, 2019.

President Bill Clinton makes a comment to Delta Caucus Director Lee Powell at a meeting in Blytheville, Arkansas (in the northeast Arkansas Delta) on Nov. 2, 2014

The Delta Caucus would like to pay tribute to the late, great U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, a powerful force in the US Senate for decades and a champion for the Delta. Sen. Cochran passed away on May 30, 2019. He spoke to the Delta Caucus on many occasions over the years (he is pictured above speaking to a Caucus event on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC) and his thoughtful, courteous and bipartisan leadership will be sorely missed.

Marcie Lawson, Executive Director, Sikeston, Missouri Regional Chamber and Area Economic Development Corporation, speaking at the Delta regional conference in West Memphis, Arkansas on April 26, 2019.

Alan Gumbel, Greater Memphis Alliance for a Competitive Workforce, Memphis, Tennessee, speaking at the Delta regional conference in West Memphis, Arkansas on April 26, 2019.

Mayor Shirley Washington of Pine Bluff, AR, speaking to the Delta Caucus at the Arkansas Capitol Rotunda in 2017.

Please Support the Delta Regional Authority and its Solid Budget of $32 Million

Posted on May 07, 2026 at 02:06 PM

For Concerned Citizens in the Greater Delta and Washington, DC:

Please keep supporting the Delta Regional Authority, which now has a solid budget of $32 million.

The Trump administration continues to zero out the funding in each of its proposed budgets, but Congress puts the money back in again. This has happened every time, and the administration does this to show to its supporters how it is fighting to “cut wasteful spending.” Of course, the DRA conducts efficient and constructive spending.

There are reports that the DRA Federal Co-Chairman requested $4 million for an orderly shut-down of the agency. This might be technically true at the moment given Trump’s budget request, but Congress always puts the money back in, so it is really just smoke and mirrors.

We are contacting Members of Congress in the Delta who have supported the DRA in the past and ask that they keep at the budget at least at $32 million, although an increase to $40 million would be even better.

In the current situation, maintaining the budget at a strong $32 million would be a positive outcome.

Thanks—Lee Powell, Director, Delta Grassroots Caucus (202) 360-6347