Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Editorial:

Business leaders effectively deliver Nevada’s message to D.C.

Our political representatives in Washington certainly don’t want for information and arguments for and against the bills whose fate they decide in the Senate and House. By the very nature of Capitol Hill, information — frequently skewed in one direction or another — is showered upon decision makers. It comes from their staff experts, colleagues, benefactors and lobbyists.

Add to that mix a delegation of some 50 Las Vegas business and civic leaders heading to Washington this week to acquaint (and back up) our congressional delegation and congressional leadership with issues of great concern to the local business community. At the same time, it is a chance for the business community to hear, as a group, from national leaders on matters that will affect Southern Nevada.

The trip, led by the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce, allows Nevadans who are especially savvy on particular issues that are important to the state’s future to impart upon our representatives why certain projects and initiatives make sense. In short, they’ll swarm offices on Capitol Hill to make contacts, nurture friends and influence points of view.

As one congressional staff member framed the visit: “There’s value in getting people in a room to talk about the reality of issues. The chamber’s outreach offers a chance to move past rhetoric and lay things out on the table.”

This is the 11th year the chamber has organized such a trip, and members have become so accomplished at meeting and influencing the right people in the capital that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ranks the Las Vegas group as one of the most politically effective chambers in the country in campaigning for bills that benefit the folks back home. (The Las Vegas contingent also is well known for throwing great receptions, drawing hundreds of people even before the invites go out.)

While they are back East, members of the chamber group will be briefed by experts from various think tanks and institutes on public-policy issues relevant to Nevada, such as transportation and water.

Past missions to Washington have helped loosen startup funding for Interstate 11, a much-needed carrier of commerce linking Phoenix and points south to Las Vegas and points north, and helped secure the national-monument designation of Tule Springs, the fossil-rich desert wash on the northwest fringe of the Las Vegas Valley.

Strategically, these homegrown lobbying efforts aren’t directed just at our own congressional delegation, but toward other Capitol Hill leaders who chair committees and subcommittees where bills important to Nevada have stalled. One-on-one discussions with those chairs have loosened logjams so the bills important to Nevadans got their hearings and ultimate approvals.

This trip’s agenda, starting today and concluding Thursday, includes advocating for more funding to continue the planning for I-11 — especially the leg between Las Vegas and Phoenix where there are precious few funding sources from Arizona; increased federal funding to bolster anti-terrorism protections in Las Vegas, particularly along the Strip; and collaboration with federal agencies in developing new infrastructure to assist with the conservation of Colorado River water, vital to a region of the country that produces a quarter of the nation’s gross domestic product.

Among other key points of the trip are visits with the American Gaming Association, cybersecurity experts, the Brookings Institution, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Council on State Taxation, the Business-Industry Political Action Committee, and sit-downs with Nevada’s four House members and Sens. Dean Heller and Harry Reid.

This will be the last visit paid to Reid as a senator, what with his retirement this coming January. He has been Nevada’s go-to senator in dealing with the most pressing issues affecting our state, and his shoes won’t be easily filled. But those in 50 other pairs of shoes from Las Vegas, making friends and influencing people in Washington, will help provide the support from home that our delegation there will appreciate.

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