My back yard is growing!  That is how I feel after returning from the recent U.S. Chamber Committee of 100, bi-annual meeting last week.   

This committee is comprised of the country’s leading chamber chief executives.  The U.S. Chamber’s board and executive leadership rely on these members to provide advice to enhance chamber lobbying and coalition work, recommend programming, and strengthen outreach to the business and chamber of commerce communities across our country.  The bi-annual meetings deliver leadership development through high-impact presentations by business experts, leading authors, discussions on pressing policy issues and CEO-to-CEO breakout sessions. 

During the February gathering we were joined by members of the U.S. Chamber’s Board of Directors and Small Business Council, further enhancing our information gathering ability to take back to our own business communities.  Together we heard from Bruce Josten, Executive VP for Governmental Affairs, and Dr. Martin Regalia, Sr. VP and Chief Economist of Economic Policy, among others.  A lot of numbers, facts and figures were given to us. We even heard an inside report on international affairs related to Jordan, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan from a prestigious former military leader that now serves as an advisor to the U.S. Chamber staff. 

Among the great privileges of serving as the St. Tammany West Chamber’s C.E.O. is the opportunity to meet and learn from my counterparts, to regularly dialogue with them and the experts at the U.S. Chamber.  The U.S. Chamber offers us resources we simply could not afford to provide on our own, chief among them being that our own members are automatically members of the U.S. Chamber through their Federation Partnership Program. 

Bi-partisan politics aside, there is a lot happening on Capitol Hill that has, is, and will continue to affect, not only businesses, but also individuals for many, many years to come. It is not good news.  There is a great unknown facing us as it relates to clarity on taxes, regulations, the federal budget, the budget “freeze,” the growing deficit, foreign investment and how it is impacting individual taxpayers. And unfortunately, there is also a lot not happening, being described as a paralysis primarily in the U.S. Senate! As much as we hear on the news, what is actually happening besides on-going debate? 

What is good news is that through local community chambers such as ours, the U.S. Chamber has rallied, setting a new grassroots response record.  In 2008, the number of letters sent to Congress and the White House hovered around 40,000.  In 2009: 1.1 million!  The most popular topics of the letters from local and state Chambers of Commerce, associations and businesses were as follows:  responsible health care reform, greater transparency in financial markets and restoring investor confidence without costly government bureaucracy; preserving secret ballots in union elections (aka “Card Check”, EFCA); and opposing the administration’s massive tax and spending budget.   According to Bill Miller, Sr. V-P of Political Affairs and Federation Relations, “The letters from a vast grassroots network in all 50 states are evidence of widespread support for pro-growth policies and opposition to legislative proposals that burden businesses and could harm America’s economic recovery.” 

While our focus as the voice of business has primarily been on local and state issues, we see the need on behalf of our members to devote some time and resources to national issues.  It is not just the issues in our backyards that affect us now, and certainly not just those backyard issues that will affect us, our kids and grandkids in the future. We have been among those sending and encouraging letters, emails and phone calls.  Together, with some of our volunteers, I traveled to Washington on the Card Check issue last year, and we have two volunteer representatives there again this week continuing that fight. 

You can learn more about the primary issues the U.S. Chamber is focusing on in 2010 and ever stronger advocacy efforts primarily dedicated to advancing policies that will create jobs—20 million to be exact—and get the national economy moving again.  The new effort is called the Campaign for Free Enterprise, a movement to ensure that free enterprise continues to flourish for the benefit of all Americans now and in the future.  Reviving the economy to rebuild the 7M jobs lost and create the 13M jobs needed over the next decade for new workers will preserve economic freedom including open capital markets, free trade, and reasonable levels of taxation and regulation. 

To learn more visit www.uschamber.com and www.FreeEnterprise.com. And as always, visit us at www.sttammanychamber.org and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.