From April 16-19, Seattle Metro Chamber members and senior leaders joined our friends and colleagues from the Portland, Ore., region to jointly meet with our respective congressional delegations and Biden Administration leaders from key federal agencies whose work closely intersects with our business communities. Topics ranged from addressing the national fentanyl crisis, homelessness, housing affordability, workforce development, international trade, agriculture, energy policy, and transportation, with a special session on the future of high-speed rail in the Cascadia mega-region.
Here are the top takeaways from the trip:
- Regionalism is important, the Members of Congress and Administration Officials repeatedly shared how impressed they were with our approach of bringing together our business communities to advocate for our shared priorities. During this busy season of various industry fly-in visits to Washington, D.C., we had concise priorities and offered congressional and Seattle Metro Chamberistration officials’ platforms that elevated their work and helped build relationships.
- Speaking of relationship building, our members who attended forged closer connections with members of the Portland Business Alliance (PBA), comparing notes on how their community is managing through many of the same quality-of-life and business issues we face in Seattle.
- Those quality-of-life issues were top of mind for all Members of Congress and were interconnected to the range of topics they prioritized. In almost every meeting, whether focused on transportation or agriculture policy, the intersection with housing affordability, workforce development, and addressing public safety gaps brought urgency to finding innovative policy solutions.
Thank you to everyone who attended or contributed to these important policy discussions and helped make this trip a success. A special acknowledgement to our colleagues at Monument Advocacy, our D.C. and general communications consultant, whose work was central to three days of fantastic policy discussions. Look for more information in the coming weeks as we debrief with our PBA partners and attendees. And start planning to join us next year.
