39th Annual LEAP Conference Report

Washington State Delegation

Randy Robins  L-502  Business Manager

Bruce Burge     L-502  President

Richard T. Jones  L-502  LEAP Chairman

Gary Powers L-104  Business Manager

Larry Napp   L-104   LEAP Chairman

John Kosinski  L-290  Business Manager

Gregory Wilson  L-290   President

Darin Steel  L-500  Business Manager

Dave Bunch  International Representative Shipyard Division 

Tuesday March 13

Patty Murray:  At the opening of our meetings for the conference we meet with Bill Kamela, Chief of Staff for Senator, Patty Murray.  As is almost all meetings we have with Bill or Patty on most issues we know we can count on their full support.  We hit on the bill HR-800 ( FREE CHOICE ACT) just passed last week by the House.  We feel that Senator Murray will support the legislation when it comes before the Senate for a vote.  The Senator has also reintroduced the asbestos bill for consideration in committees. Although we do not share the same views on trade as the Senator,  we stated clearly our thoughts on the restructuring of the trade agreements and making it a more fair workable agreement.  The meeting concluded on a positive note and look forward to working with the Senators office on other important issues as they come forward.

Wednesday March 14

Lisa Murkowski of Alaska:  We started our meeting off for the day  meeting with Arne Fuglvog of Alaska's Senator Lisa Murkowskis office.  We were able to discuss all issues that had been prepared for our meeting with our representatives.  We met with good support it seamed on the issues surrounding recent with the Coastguard using a watered down version of the JONES ACT to have ships built in modules and assembled in the US and trying to call it made in America.  We also attempted to bring our views on the FREE CHOICE ACT HR-800 to view for the Senator's consideration when the bill comes for vote in the Senate.  

Adam Smith:  We had a chance to meet with the Congressman despite his busy schedule.  We thanked him for his vote for HR-800 and visited for some time on the issues surrounding our shipyards and the violation of the JONES ACT by the Coastguard.  As we have in the past disagreed to a point on trade.  As most are aware the Congressman has been a supporter of the trade legislation and although in most cases we can count on him for good strong labor friendly support,  this appears to be a issue we will not see eye to eye on.  The visit was for the most part a good visit, but much more work will need to be done to communicate our disagreement with the current trade policies as they stand.

Norm Dicks:    We had a short meeting with Jami from the Congressman's office.  We ask to thank the Congressman for his support on the FREE CHOICE ACT  and covered all the issues.  We left a packet of fact sheets to be given to the Congressman and look forward to trying to meet with him the next time we are in town.

Dave Reichert:  We had a short 11 minute meeting with the congressman between voting.  We felt it was a positive meeting and he expressed a good deal of interest in the issues with the Coastguard.  He did not have a lot of time and so we left a packet of fact sheets and concluded a quick but informative meeting.

Rick Larson:  We had a hallway meeting with the congressman's aide as the office was full already with other visitors.  We gave a packet to Mike and briefly covered the issues.  We concluded the meeting with the feeling of not really being heard as the aide made maybe three lines of notes and seamed to be eager to do something else.  We hope to get the Congressman next visit.

Thursday March 15

Don Young of Alaska:  As meetings go, this one is always one we look forward to every year.  Congressman Young is not know to beat about the bush but say what is on his mind.  We had but just a brief 15min visit and found him to be rather disturbed over the issues surrounding the Coastguards conduct and will be sending a letter out to deal with the matter before it gets out of hand.  His views on trade are no secret as he has apposed the trade bills from there conception.  Also, his views on improving the lives of everyone in Alaska is always top of his priority list.  He has no love for our Washington Representatives who have slammed the door on him time and time again over environmental issues surrounding developing the industrial base in Alaska.  A very good meeting and look forward to seeing him again.

Jay Inslee:  A short meeting with the Congressman as he was in committee we gave his aide a packet and just covered the issues with the shipyards and ship building and then he had to leave.  We hope to have more time with him next trip.

Brian Baird:  We had the meeting with Ian Rogers Legislative assistant  to the congressman.  We went around the room and talked about all the issues  and spent some time on clean coal burning and ship building issues.  Trade is also another big issue with the Congressman we had hoped to take straight to the Congressman but after a scheduling issue on the 14th we were not able to meet with him in person.  Ian did take a lot of notes and seemed to be interested to a point in what was said so we will see how far it goes.

Conclusion:

In past years we have came to the Hill to meet with our Representatives we have had more time and more appointments.  It was nice to see everyone so busy.  Now that the change in the House has shifted so much we hear the phrase "now that we are able to go to work" more and more in our meetings.  It is nice to see that things are on a good pace to getting something done, only time will tell as to what can be done as the White House still posses the biggest challenge of all.