Letter from ACEC President & CEO Linda Bauer Darr: Council Launches Virtual Advocacy Campaign

ACEC News / Coronavirus

April 30, 2020

Letter from ACEC President & CEO Linda Bauer Darr: Council Launches Virtual Advocacy Campaign

To the ACEC Community,

ACEC National has launched a sustained virtual advocacy campaign focused on an infrastructure-first recovery agenda. Under the banner of of “Rescue, Recover, Rebuild,” we are calling on Congress to:

• Pass a multi-year reauthorization of the FAST Act with increased funding to support highway and transit projects and regulatory reforms for efficient project delivery;
• Increase investment in critical water and wastewater infrastructure;
• Bolster energy self-sufficiency and make our system more resilient and sustainable; and
• Promote building design and construction, rural broadband, and other essential components of a growing and vibrant economy.

The campaign’s success depends on the grassroots advocacy of our membership. That means you. Over the coming weeks, we will send tools and resources to help you contact your Member of Congress. Be on the lookout for action alerts with pre-loaded letters to Congress, requests for social media advocacy, and information to help you schedule a virtual meeting with your elected representative. If you have any questions about our virtual advocacy program, please reach out to Steve Hall at shall@acec.org or Dave Bender at dbender@acec.org.

Just as we’ve transformed our annual legislative fly-in into a virtual event, we held our first-ever virtual Board of Directors meeting last Saturday.  I hope you were among the more than 300 ACEC members who participated as we updated the Board on our COVID-19 response and our priorities for the year ahead and welcomed our new volunteer leaders, including our Board Chair and several members of the Executive Committee. If you weren’t able to attend the meeting, I encourage you to read the President’s Report, as well as the remarks of our outgoing Board Chair Mitch Simpler and our new Board Chair Charles Gozdziewski here.

On behalf of the Council, I want to thank Mitch for his steadfast leadership over the past year. He worked tirelessly to implement our strategic plan, strengthen our advocacy efforts, and launch the ACEC Research Institute. In this COVID-19 crisis, he has been so supportive of me, our staff, and our membership. And Charlie G is already fully engaged in leading the Council to the next level as we emerge from this crisis.  We are in good hands.

As always, stay safe and stay committed to our future prosperity and a bright future for the engineering industry.

 

Sincerely,

Linda Bauer Darr

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