Davis/Yolo County Legislative Trip to Washington DC Wraps-up

Posted on behalf of Rochelle Swanson, Davis Council member &

Kemble Pope, Executive Director of Davis Chamber of Commerce

April 18, 2012 (Davis, CA) – I am writing this recap one day later than I wanted to because yesterday was such a long day.  Wednesday was absolutely dual-purpose, with appointments in the morning and then travel back home for the majority of us.  Details about appointments that I attended are below, but let me start by saying that due to weather and higher security concerns, travel back to Davis was extremely difficult.  Many of us were completely rerouted and spent many additional hours in airports across the country, arriving at Sacramento International Airport in the very wee hours of the morning.  Some even got delayed overnight and came in this morning! I personally spent numerous hours in Dallas waiting on my connection flight and landed at about 3 am this morning. All said, it was a hard travel day!

Now for the meetings that we had yesterday (Wednesday) morning.  These were extremely positive meetings, really capping off the whole effort.

First the Innovation Team met with Congresswoman Doris Matsui.  It was a great meeting and Ms. Matsui clearly understands what we are trying to do in Davis/Yolo and the greater Sacramento Region. As most of you know, while he was Congressman, Bob Matsui was a big champion for research and development (R&D) when he served on the Ways & Means Committee. Similarly, Ms. Matsui sees that current policies/models aren’t working as well as they can and she is "trying to figure out new funding tools for innovation." She works very closely with partners throughout our region and is personally involved in visits to the Sacramento Region’s schools, working to identify potential mentors for girls and minorities in the STEM (science, tech, engineering and math) fields so they can see witness a diversity of success.

Ms. Matsui also said she would like to see the existing Infrastructure bank coupled with an Innovation bank as innovation still needs basic infrastructure. I personally think this is excellent and Ms. Matsui’s common sense approach is reassuring. She also understands that we need tax reform (investment, med device tax, small business, etc), but that realistically we won’t see reform addressed before fall 2013 or spring 2014. But she remains hopeful that we may see comprehensive immigration reform this year. 

As a special treat, I was able to have a few minutes alone with Ms. Matsui in between meetings and she shared that she works closely with UC Davis and the Chancellor and is so glad to see the City of Davis at the table working hard on the regional efforts. We will of course be following up with Ms. Matsui in the coming weeks and months on the Davis/Yolo opportunities that we shared with her staff earlier in the week. 

Next, the Innovation team split up to cover two overlapping meetings.  One group met with staff for Senator Jerry Moran and the other with staff Senator Chris Coons. 

I was not in the meeting with Senator Moran’s staff, but the central theme of the discussion was on the Startup Act 3.0. The Innovation Team members told me later that the meeting was very positive and that the linkages between the Startup 3.0 and what we are looking to achieve in Davis/Yolo and the Sacramento region are very complementary.  You can read about the Startup Act 3.0 here: http://www.moran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=1f919cb7-f74f-4416-b462-e660cdeeaa8b

The meeting with staff for Senator Coons also centered on support for Senator Moran's Startup Act 3.0 as Senator Coons is a signatory to the bill.  Staff also discussed Senator Coons’ stand-alone bill S193, the Startup Innovation Credit Act.  You can see details here: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s193

We also learned that many of these startup, innovation and entrepreneur-focused discussions and bills are rooted in the White House Startup America plan, which you can read about here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/startup-america-fact-sheet

As an example of just how important our efforts to move the Innovation discussion forward have been, Senator Coons’ legislative aide was excited that we would be there to offer help and support, not just complain and lobby for changes. We explained how the Innovation effort across the nation needs to be united to spur us all on to better things.  The bill (S193) currently has bi-partisan support, with the signatory authors including four democrats and four republicans. It was obvious from our conversations that Senator Coons appreciates the need for investments to generate R&D, innovation and jobs.  And he supports comprehensive immigration reform. Ironically, an article came out in the San Francisco Chronicle on Visa reform discussion by the “Gang of 8” the same day we were having this meeting.  You can read about that here:  http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/H-1B-visa-program-would-expand-under-bill-4439865.php?t=bbe5e6be11

Overall, it was bittersweet to leave DC. The team really loved the town and its energy, but we were all ready to come back and we really missed the community and our families.  It was alarming to be in Washington DC and visiting Capitol Hill offices while hearing the news of ricin-laced letters targeting government officials, but we quickly found that the fail safes for our national security are working properly.  And as if the occurrences all around us couldn’t get any more surreal, I was in the Russell Senate Building in Senator Coons’ office with his staff watching CNN about the ricin-laced letters when the "breaking news" ticker along the bottom says backpack being investigated for possible bomb in the Russell Senate Building. Yikes! One staffer even quipped "I'm surprised my mom hasn't called yet." They were so calm, I couldn't bring myself to be worried.  It is so amazing to see how the representatives and staffers in DC deal with issues every day, I was truly humbled to be there with them. 

I hope you found the Davis/Yolo team’s tweets at #DavisinDC useful and enjoyed following the greater Cap-to-Cap delegation at#cap2cap13.  There have been posted many great pictures of the teams meeting with agencies and elected officials and their experiences travelling around DC, including using the RideShare bikes (a program we hope to bring to Davis soon!).

I want to also thank everyone on our team that came with us.  The Davis/Yolo team had representation from the City of Davis, Yolo County, UC Davis, Davis Chamber of Commerce, and Davis small businesses. We also were accompanied by two phenomenal research fellows for the Centaur Group, Laura McCollough and Catherine Hawe (both of which paid their own way to be on the trip).  And lastly, we had significant support back here from Davis Chamber staff, including Margaret Wong and Jack Garvey, Jr., both of which helped us juggle the ever-changing schedule of meetings.  And to those of you following us each day, thank you as well.  We know that the support you provide is what makes this effort possible. 

Our Davis/Yolo team is preparing a full recap for posting, hopefully by tomorrow evening/Saturday morning, and I will try to get some guest entries from some of my teammates.  As a sneak peak, one of my fellow teammates (Kemble Pope, Executive Director of the Davis Chamber of Commerce) gave me the following blog to post. 

Until then, 

Rochelle

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Comments from Kemble Pope, Executive Director of
the Davis Chamber of Commerce.

As part of the Jobs & Business Growth Team, I attended two meetings on the Hill with California Congressmen. Our small team was surprised to have  epresentative McClintock meet with us instead of his legislative aide. Out wide ranging discussion included tax policy to level the playing field for all businesses that sell items to consumers across all 50 states and support for Small Business
Administration and Commerce Department programs that help to start and grow businesses. Our last official meeting of the trip was with Representative Doug LaMalfa. We arrived at Room 300 of the Longworth House Office Building to find that our meeting was being conducted on a massive veranda overlooking the Capitol, a real treat. The discussion with Mr. LaMalfa was incredibly productive. He absolutely supports the protection of the 100 year old tax exempt status of municipal bonding authority. Our discussion of rural needs lead to some "homework" for me to share the Sacramento Council of Government's Blueprint that protects valuable Ag and habitat land by focusing any new growth into infill and existing urban areas. He's also very concerned with rural health challenges and I made the case for more support for rural broadband access which would greatly benefit the research efforts at UC Davis and local businesses that are innovating the Ag tech (think remote sensing for irrigation and fertilizer etc) and telemedicine (face to face access to primary care providers over video etc).

Since I'm not traveling until Thursday, I ended the work day by making unannounced stops at several House offices to leave our Davis brochure to seed some of our ideas for future discussions. I spoke with staff at Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's office and at Rep. Lloyd Doggett's office because he's an important player on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. While visiting with Rep. Mike Thompson's staff, I had the luck to talk with the Congressman himself. He sends his regards to everyone in Davis and his staff assures me that they most certainly lend support to Rep. Garamendi as we move forward. I stopped by the Garamendi office one last time to say thanks and had a great discussion with Mrs. Garamendi. 

Now, I'm finally getting to play tourist and just toured the Capitol and sat in both the House and Senate Galleries while they were in session. I'm writing this post from the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, a truly awe inspiring building. 

I'm looking forward to getting back to Davis to follow up on A LOT of opportunities for our community.