ACCESS Washington, D.C. -- Your Voice, Your Issues

by Gary Toebben

This Friday is the deadline to register for ACCESS Washington, D.C., the region's largest annual trip to our nation's capital. With a new Presidential Administration and Congress focusing on a broad range of major issues, your voice is more important than ever in sharing the impact that new policies would have on your business, your customers and Southern California as a whole.

This year's trip highlights include an opening reception Monday night at the Newseum, where we will honor the new members of the California Congressional delegation. On Tuesday night, we will host a meet and greet reception with the rest of the California delegation in the Willard courtyard. Two breakfast keynotes and a closing night dinner will round out the all-delegation events.

Elected officials who will join the business community in leading our delegation include L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, L.A. City Councilmembers Mitch Englander and Curren Price, Manhattan Beach Councilmember Richard Montgomery, Glendale Councilmember Zareh Sinanyan and Los Angeles Unified School District Board President Steve Zimmer. They'll join L.A. Metro CEO Phil Washington, L.A. World Airports CEO Deborah Flint, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka and the rest of our delegation in advocating for policies and funding that will benefit L.A. County and Southern California.

Our regional economy team will focus on trade, taxes and immigration - big picture issues that impact our economic vitality. The transportation and goods movement teams will be discussing what L.A. County is looking for in a potential infrastructure package. The energy and environmental sustainability team has energy reliability, energy security and renewable energy on their agenda. The water team will be advocating for help with post-drought investments that California must make for long-term water reliability.

The housing and homeless team will be advocating for reliable federal programs to pair with the local financial commitments approved by the voters in Measures H and HHH. Teams on education and workforce development will be promoting a cradle-to career approach to developing a 21st century workforce. And perhaps most timely, our health care team will be weighing in on the components of health care policies that would be most helpful and least harmful to the residents of California.

This trip is an opportunity to create new relationships in D.C., touch base with old friends and advocate on the most pressing issues of the day. I urge you to join our 100+ member delegation in promoting the L.A. perspective in our nation's capitol.

And that's The Business Perspective.