Tuesday's Meetings

The second day of meetings started early with an 8am breakfast and several 10am meetings, including Department of Education, Embassy of Canada, Senate Environment and Public Works Minority Committee, and The Brookings Institution.

The luncheon, hosted by Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, at the D.C. Metropolitan Club proved to be a tremendous location and provided great information about the new twists and turns of the healthcare industry.

Afterwards the entire delegation came together to take a group photo outside the historic site.

 

The meeting schedule resumed at 2pm with appointments at the General Services Administration, White House, Department of HUD, Department of Energy and several key congressional members.  The meeting with Senate President Pro Tempore and Chair of the Appropriations Committee, Daniel Inouye (making him the highest-highest Asian American politician in the history of the US) proved to be particularly successful.  Having not heard about the trouble getting funding for the San Ysidro border crossing, he was intrigued and promised to check into it with members of the CA delegation and others.


Other productive meetings included the Office of Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn from Texas on the issue of border security and efficiency.  Congressman John Fleming discussed sequestration with delegates and noted that he will work to try and stop or scale back the possible destructive measure.

The day ended with a meeting at the Office of House Speaker John Boehner to discuss cross border trade and defense budget.  Afterwards his staff took us out to the exclusive Speaker's office balcony, a truly rare and exciting occasion.