Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 11, 1995 TAG: 9504110140
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pushing mightily for approval of the "Contract With America," which satisfies many of the chamber's legislative goals, Chairman Dennis Sheehan said Monday.
Sheehan predicted Congress will pass a version of the 10-point package of bills dealing with taxes, the federal bureaucracy, welfare, defense and crime advanced by Republicans who control the House of Representatives.
``Most, if not all, the bills being passed by the House will be enacted favorably by the Senate,'' Sheehan said in an interview. ``Reaction out in the country seems to be very positive that something is being done.''
During a swing through Roanoke, Sheehan ate a private lunch with members of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce's board of directors before an evening speech to the Bedford Chamber of Commerce.
Sheehan is president, chairman and chief executive officer of AXIA, an Oak Brook, Ill., manufacturer of many of the racks for automatic dishwashers sold in America.
In his yearlong stint, which began in February, as the U.S. Chamber's unpaid chairman, Sheehan juggles his corporate duties with visiting chambers nationwide and lobbying in Washington.
His Roanoke stop bore special significance, because he is married to a Roanoke native. He also spends his summers in Tappahannock.
But Roanoke can put aside any hope of enjoying special treatment from the 215,000-member national chamber, which calls itself the world's largest federation of businesses, chambers of commerce, and trade and professional associations.
The chamber officially has no position on local issues, such as the path of proposed Interstate 73 that the regional chamber wants routed through the Roanoke Valley. The chamber considers itself strictly a national business lobby that leaves debate over specific programs to others.
The group's purely national focus would seem to be on a collision course, however, with the wishes of companies with 20 or fewer employees, which make up 75 percent of its membership.
Although there has been talk in Washington of cutting the U.S. Small Business Administration, the chamber probably will sit out that debate, Sheehan said.
The chamber supports shrinking the federal government and won't dilute its argument by urging lawmakers to shelter certain federal programs. ``We can't have it both ways,'' Sheehan said.
Sheehan said the chamber polled members extensively before writing its National Business Agenda, in which these and other issues are spelled out. It was developed independently of the Contract With America, though the two programs coincide on many points, he said.
``Both documents speak to the need to reduce the influence of government in American life, to lift the growing burdens of regulations and paperwork, to rein in our runaway legal system and reduce the federal deficit,'' he said.
Roanoke chamber members may disagree over certain points in Contract With America - the chamber has not taken a poll - but they generally support scaling back the federal bureaucracy, said Tom Brock, chairman of the chamber.
by CNB