ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606250005
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-18 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
MEMBERS OF the Greater Blacksburg Chamber of Commerce spent a day in D.C., advancing their causes and learning more about how our political system works.
VIP Treatment - or some form of it - only gets you so far in Washington.
You can get advance passes to the White House that take you past throngs of schoolchildren and other tourists waiting in line for White House tickets.
You can't go directly into the Capitol's Senate floor visitor's gallery without an aide - even if you have bonafide pink passes from a senator's office.
A White House tour, briefings at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, lunch and meetings with legislators on Capitol Hill all added up to a dizzying day of hobnobbing and lobbying for 18 members of the Greater Blacksburg Chamber of Commerce - a mix of seeing the sights and homing in on who's who in D.C.
The June 4 trip was a chance to meet with Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, and aides of the two Virginia senators, Republican John Warner and Democrat Charles Robb, to talk about important issues facing the New River Valley and the country.
For chamber leadership, the trip was a continuation of efforts to become more visible in representing the concerns of business in the New River Valley. In January, the chamber took a delegation to Virginia's General Assembly.
"We're trying to find our sea legs and find out what works, what doesn't," said Todd Halwas, the chamber's past president.
He considered the trip a success.
"I think it's important that our representatives know there are people out there watching them who are not professional lobbyists," Halwas said, and who can provide an outside-the-Beltway perspective.
While the group went to let the legislators know more about them, it came away with a better knowledge of how the system works.
The day starts at 7 a.m. after a midnight arrival at an Alexandria hotel. The Blacksburg Limousine bus driver makes short work of early morning commuter traffic to deliver the group to the White House by 8 a.m.
Bypassing the long lines thanks to a prearranged entry, the group soon realizes this is as far as the VIP treatment goes.
The chamber representatives are herded quickly from room to room with nary an appearance by a Cabinet member, Hillary Rodham Clinton or the Gores as they had jokingly hoped. Not even a glimpse of Socks, the first cat.
Instead, a uniformed Secret Service officer recites historical tidbits:
The Red Room is where Eleanor Roosevelt held her first news conference and where spouses of foreign dignitaries are entertained.
The East Room, the largest room in the White House, is where bill signings and first lady events are held, and where a young Amy Carter used to rollerskate.
"Hail to the Chief" became the signal that the president had arrived when James Polk's wife realized her short husband was being overlooked as he made his entrance into rooms.
The hum of Marine One landing on the White House lawn sends people jockeying for position at windows of each room, craning in vain for a glimpse of President Clinton as he boards the chopper.
At the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, staffers brief the Blacksburg delegation on China's Most Favored Nation status, medical reform and the economy.
From there, it's on to Capitol Hill.
First stop: an outdoor group photo with Boucher with the Capitol in the background. Heading inside for lunch, the delegation passes another group on the Capitol Hill steps holding up a "For Sale" sign.
Standing in the lunch line, Boucher borrows a page from Electro-Tec Corp. General Manager Sam St. Amour's pocket calendar to jot a brief outline of what he will speak about, adding to it as he is asked questions during lunch.
Boucher eats only about half his meal before getting up to deliver a miniversion of the remarks he makes at his well-known town hall meetings. He talks about the Electronic Village and post-Cold War opportunities for the Radford Army Ammunition Plant. He waves off talk of his bid for re-election.
Next, the group takes an underground minisubway to Robb's offices in the Russell Senate Office Building.
Ridge Schuyler, a Robb aide, says Robb and his colleagues spend very little time on the Senate floor.
"Most of your time is spent meeting with people," he says.
Staffers stay tuned to C-Span to keep up with anything that needs the senator's immediate attention. With the subway, Robb can make it to the Senate floor in about 2 1/2 minutes.
The delegation describes its concerns about the future of the "smart" road, a project designed for Virginia Tech to participate in transportation technology and to link Blacksburg to Roanoke.
The chamber thinks the Montgomery County supervisors are divided 3-3 on whether to allow the Virginia Department of Transportation to condemn 140 acres of land in a protected conservation zone that are in the road's path, with the deciding vote to come from rookie Mary Biggs.
"She's for environment. We all are," Blacksburg Mayor Roger Hedgepeth says, before adding, "We can all love squirrels and cardinals and still vote for something progressive on occasion."
(About two weeks later, the group's predictions are borne out but Biggs has sided with road proponents. The path is cleared for the smart road to proceed.)
Dave Williams, the new chief administrator of Columbia Montgomery Regional Hospital, and Dr. Larry Cowley, a surgeon, share worries over a little-known provision of the Kennedy-Kassebaum health care reform bill addressing fraud that calls for criminal charges and fines of up to $10,000 if medical professionals miscode billings.
"The provision didn't distinguish between honest errors and knowing intent," Williams says.
Harvey Shephard, the chamber's executive director, has encouraged the delegation to speak out about issues that concern them. Without questions, the chamber members would look unprepared for the time they had been afforded.
So the group is pleased when Schuyler responds to their comments with an intent ear, jotting down a note here and there and saying, "This sounds like something we can fix."
From Robb's office, they head toward the Senate floor, hoping to peek in on a vote. Robb - who was rushing back to his office to spend a few minutes with the group - passes them at the subway. He has spoken to them briefly at lunch and wants to spend more time but has been delayed by other meetings.
Long lines at the Senate floor leave little time before a scheduled 2:30 p.m. session with Warner and his staff. Dejected, the group leaves, but they are buoyed when four members catch Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kansas, in the hallway, and share Williams' concerns about the medical reform bill.
"She was very adamant that ... would not be a provision she'd envision in the final bill," Halwas said later.
Back in Russell Senate Office Building, Warner enters the Senate Caucus Room for just a moment, apologizing that he can't stay. A week away from his primary victory over Jim Miller, he promises that if returned to office, "I'll spend a whole day with you" the next time the group visits.
The chamber's concerns about the future of the smart road occupy much of the discussion with five of Warner's aides.
Ann Loomis, Warner's aide for highway matters, said that in the coming year, "We plan on ... taking every opportunity to advance the smart road."
After 4 p.m., the group finally navigates through a maze of underground hallways to Boucher's office in the Rayburn House Office Building.
Two tile coasters promoting Blacksburg given to Boucher at lunch have already been placed, one on an end table and another near his computer. Seven lights that form a semicircle over a wall clock draw the visitors' attention. The congressman explains their significance: They tell whether the house is in session or recess or how long he has to vote, even whether the matters being discussed are controversial bills or not.
Boucher staffer Cynthia Kern then leads the group to the House of Representatives. Along the way, she points out statues and paintings and tells the stories behind them. Right above a men's room is a painting commemorating a women's suffrage parade in 1917. It was strategically placed there many years ago, where, it was thought, it surely would attract no attention, she says.
Preparing to enter the House of Representatives gallery - dumping pens, notebooks, camera, lighters in a holding cabinet - takes longer than visiting it. The gallery is practically empty, with only one representative on the floor, entering his comments into the record.
At about 5:30 p.m., the group files out of the Capitol - tired, parched and ready for a relaxing dinner before heading home.
"I think the object of the trip - to get to know the chamber as a representative of business in the region - was a step in the right direction," says Patti Cowley, chamber president.
Mark Poindexter, a former Virginia Tech football player who works at Federal Mogul Corp., says he learned a lot about issues facing other chamber members in their jobs and what the politicians' positions were.
"It's information that's probably been there but I hadn't taken time" to get it, he says.
Shephard says the trip laid "the groundwork for projects like this in the future as we get a better idea of how the system works" and how to find people on Capitol Hill who can help.
"I think we really were given an awful lot to digest and I think it will pay off later," Shephard says.
"It's kind of scary and you have to be in awe a little bit," Halwas says. "It is astonishing the minutiae that these representatives get into. ... It really dawns on you that that place is run by the staffs. I don't know if that's a good thing."
LENGTH: Long : 190 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Kathy Loan. 1. Eighteen members of the Greaterby CNBBlacksburg Chamber of Commerce recently spent an afternoon on
Capitol Hill meeting with Virginia's political representatives (Ran
on NRV-1). 2. Quick! Spot the politician. Give up? That's U.S. Rep.
Scott Klug, R-Wisconsin, in blue jeans and plaid shirt (right).
Klug, the cousin of Todd Halwas (right), former chamber president,
spoke briefly to the group during a lunch hosted by Rep. Rick
Boucher. 3. Sen. Chuck Robb (above) also dropped in. Robb made an
earnest effort to meet with the chamber representatives but kept
passing them in the underground subway as he and the group hurried
through their respective afternoon appointments. 4. U.S. Rep Rick
Boucher, D-Abingdon, asked the delegation into his office to relax
as they wrapped up the day-long visit to Capitol Hill. He explained
House of Representative procedures before sending the group off with
a staffer to visit the House floor. 5. Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia,
couldn't spend much time with the Blacksburg delegation, but dashed
in to the Senate Caucus Room to ask them to share their concerns
about the 'smart' road and other matters with his aides (standing).
color.