The Council’s Whirlwind Trip to Washington, D.C.

By Melanie de La Grange

The Bay Area Council Delegation got a true taste of Washington D.C. last week – from high powered meetings on Capitol Hill to being caught in a colossal traffic jam thanks to the dueling motorcades of three heads of state. The Delegation heard inside the beltway commentary from Washington Post columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winner David Broder and CNN pundit Donna Brazile. They went to Capitol Hill for a meeting with Speaker Pelosi and members of the Bay Area delegation, plus a meeting with Senator Boxer. They squeezed in meetings at the Department of Transportation, the Department of Energy and the State Department. They met with President Obama Cabinet member Ron Kirk, who, as the U.S. Trade Representative, is responsible for all current and future free trade deals. They had dinner with Senator Dianne Feinstein. They went to the White House Executive Office Building and met with: Larry Summers, Director of the White House’s National Economic Council; Christina Romer, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors; Carol Browner, President Obama’s global warming czar; Van Jones, President Obama’s Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation; Vivek Kundra, Federal Chief Information Officer; and Matt Rogers who is in charge of the stimulus funds for the Department of Energy. And they attended a Washington Nationals ball game – all of this in under 48 hours!

We look forward to returning to DC over the coming months to continue to push our federal agenda.