With more than 90 new elected officials in Congress this year, chemical executives are gathering in the nation’s capital to better educate lawmakers about the specialty chemical industry and advocate for policies that support the industry’s competitiveness and market expansion.
SOCMA members will convene in Washington April 9-10 for SOCMA CONNECTS’s Sixth Annual Washington Fly-In – an opportunity for industry representatives to influence the future direction of chemical policy through face-to-face meetings with lawmakers and their staff.
“As a highly innovative industry, specialty chemical manufacturers are strongly concerned about the stifling affect regulations can have on job creation and economic growth,” said SOCMA president and CEO Lawrence D. Sloan. “It is now more important than ever to ensure that the economic impacts of regulations are given equal weight to the perceived benefits of those regulations.”
In addition to concerns about the impact of regulations, Sloan said SOCMA will push for passage of the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and support for the establishment of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union. Fly-In participants will also urge Congress to reauthorize the nation’s chemical security program, support carefully tailored fixes to the Toxic Substances Control Act and strengthen the research and development tax credit.
In conjunction with this year’s event, SOCMA is also hosting a “Virtual Fly-In” for members unable to make the trip to Washington. The Virtual Fly-In, which allows members to send electronic letters to their representatives, runs April 8-12 and rounds off a week of advocacy activities.
To complement its advocacy effort, SOCMA is also publishing full-page ads in the April 9-10 issues of Roll Call, one of the most widely read newspapers on Capitol Hill.
SOCMA’s advocacy week activities are organized by the association’s grassroots arm, SOCMA CONNECT, which supports and encourages members to shape the laws affecting specialty chemical manufacturers.
