Getting To Work On Legislative Priorities

Posted November 27, 2018

November 27, 2018 at 11:18 AM
By Jennifer Banta, Vice President, Advocacy & External Affairs

The dust has settled, and the campaign ads have stopped. Now it’s time for our advocacy work to rev up.

Over the summer and fall we’ve been gathering member feedback and developing our public policy priorities for 2019. With the help of the Business Council for Legislative Affairs, the Chamber Board has approved those priorities, and we are excited to share them with members and policy makers before the end of the year.

Our priorities focus on three main concepts  building our workforce, business development and economic growth, and enhancing our communities. With those ideas as our foundation, we develop and support policies that back our priorities and help us achieve success.

While our policy priorities remain consistent, the strategy and finesse to achieve them partially hinges on which political party controls the legislature and governor’s office. Now that we know those outcomes, our true strategy work can begin. One of the most important pieces of that strategy involves you! We need our members to discuss these priorities with our elected officials. Sharing suggestions, concerns and anecdotes with our elected officials will deepen their understanding of an issue and help them make important decisions.

Because member input is so important, we’ve planned several ways for you to connect and speak directly with policy makers.

In December we will roll out our 2019 Public Policy Priorities. We_ll be hosting an ICR Legislative Launch on December 13 with our partners at the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance. Learn more about this event here.

The legislative session typically runs from January to May. In that time, we will host three public policy events designed to involve you directly in advocating the public policy priorities we lay out for the business community. These legislative events give our members a chance to interact with lawmakers in a causal setting. Stay tuned for dates and more details in the coming weeks.

On March 26, we will again team up with the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance for the annual ICR Day at the Capitol. Alongside a delegation of members, we travel to the Iowa State Capitol for a day advocating on legislators’ turf.

To stay in-the-know all session long, our Public Policy Newsletter updates are incredibly valuable. We send those during session to provide an analysis of how our priorities are faring and how you can join in our efforts.

We hope you_ll stay involved in public policy advocacy well past Election Day. This will likely prove to be an incredibly important legislative session, especially for our state. Our unified voice is the key to our success.

The Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce is a non-partisan organization and evaluates issues based solely on our mission of fostering a better business environment. The Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce is not affiliated with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. For more information about our legislative priorities, please visit www.iowacityarea.com.