Contractor Visits on Capitol Hill Yield Results

SMACNA contractors came out to address today’s critical issues with Congress—misclassification reform, three percent withholding, accounting regulations, and subcontractor bid listing—at the 2011 National Issues Conference in Washington, D.C. in early May.

More than 120 specialty contractors and association executives attended the three-day conference. After hearing from speakers with real Washington star power, SMACNA members also discussed the issues one-on-one in more than 90 appointments with members of Congress and their staffs on Capitol Hill.

SMACNA’s New York contractors impressed Sen. Charles Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) office with their sheer numbers. The delegation included 12 members who made their case on energy efficiency, which resulted in two additional meetings between SMACNA’s Capitol Hill office and the Senator’s energy staff where they discussed a variety of energy efficiency issues with a focus on Industrial Star.

In a meeting with Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-8th-Pa.), Karen Borradaile of Thermodesign Corp., from SMACNA’s Philadelphia & Vicinity chapter made such an impression that Rep. Fitzpatrick asked her to serve on his Small Business Advisory Committee.

The Orange Empire chapter persevered to score an appointment for SMACNA’s Capitol Hill staff with both the policy director and senior counsel to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee to discuss how SMACNA can help move the bid listing bill through Congress, which was recently introduced by National Issues Conference speaker Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-14th-N.Y.). (Click here for related article.)

Whether contractors are building new relationships or maintaining relationships already established, the visits in D.C. are a win-win for SMACNA and the industry.

The conference was sponsored by the Quality Construction Alliance (QCA), made up of five construction specialty contracting associations: SMACNA, the Finishing Contractors Association, the International Council of Employers of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, the Mechanical Contractors Association of America and The Association of Union Constructors.

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