A manufacturer's road map to success

Since the new congressional landscape was shaped after last November’s elections, many Washington observers seem to have a new vocation — political cartographer.

Lobbying Firm X? This map shows that it’s seized the high ground thanks to years of close ties to the Democrats. Law Firm Y? According to this grid, its prospects have tumbled down Capitol Hill. A steep climb may await back to the land of congressional influence.

Charting the political territory is an entertaining venture, and there’s no dispute the terrain shifted dramatically when Democrats took control of the House and Senate.

Yet to those of us who represent national trade associations, the recent political mapmaking is too narrowly focused, too D.C.-centric. Beyond K Street and Capitol Hill lies a vast world of individuals and ideas — the world we draw on at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).

By bringing that great, wide world to Washington, the NAM is able to shape the public debate about the things that matter most to manufacturers: reducing the high costs of energy, reining in healthcare spending, expanding export opportunities and accomplishing tax relief and legal and regulatory reform. (The NAM’s full agenda for the 2007 Congress is available at www.nam.org/agenda.)

Like any major trade association, the NAM relies on the policy expertise of an experienced staff to develop an effective case on behalf of the manufacturing economy. Our professionals know the issues backwards and forwards and can readily respond to the members of Congress and their staffs.

But, above all, it’s our members who create our influence. The NAM and our thousands of member companies, state and local manufacturing associations, affiliated groups and coalitions represent a manufacturing economy that employs 14.3 million Americans and produced more than $1.2 trillion in wealth last year. If manufacturing in the U.S. stood alone as a separate nation, it would be the eighth largest economy in the world.

That’s the big picture, which Congress understands and appreciates. But manufacturing’s policy positions become even more persuasive when brought home, when the pins identifying job-creating manufacturing facilities are stuck into maps of each congressional district.

Every district boasts at least one manufacturing company, and there are scores for which manufacturing is the largest sector of the economy. Beyond being constituents, owners and employees are also community leaders, the citizens who serve on school boards and city councils, who are active in their church and local charities. Senators and representatives know them by name, and they listen and respond to them.

As Congress debates ethics and lobbying reform in the months ahead, special care must be made to protect these citizens’ abilities to express themselves. Whether as individuals or banding together in organizations like the NAM, Americans enjoy the constitutional right of speaking freely and petitioning Congress.

Over the years we have taken scores of members of Congress and their staffs — from both parties — on tours of manufacturing plants in places such as Chicago, New Jersey and Texas.

In the laudable impulse toward reform, we ought not abridge citizens’ opportunities to express themselves or educate their elected officials.

The NAM works to concentrate our members’ energies in ways familiar to The Hill’s readers. We have a full staff devoted to member communications, which includes regular electronic and hard-copy publications (e.g., the six-times-a-year Leadership Magazine). Through e-mail we can reach upwards of 13,000 people and their millions of employees with a call to action on major votes, urging them to contact their member via phone, mail, or through an Internet contact form.

The NAM’s blog, Shopfloor.org, has also proved to be an effective tool for communicating with NAM members, other associations and national opinion-leaders.

Nothing works better than personal contact, though — concentrated, energetic, one-on-one contact. From Feb. 13 to 15, several hundred NAM members from around the country will come to Washington for our “72 Hours to Educate and Celebrate,” an intensive outreach to Congress from local manufacturers back at home.

Many associations sponsor “fly-ins,” of course, and NAM’s will feature many of the activities — receptions, breakfasts, guest speakers — that are the hallmarks of these events.

Still, the NAM makes a special effort to ensure that our “72 Hours” achieves its educational goals. We work with our members to develop a message that’s consistent yet matched to regional concerns. We reach out to newly elected members of Congress, and schedule visits to members viewed as not necessarily sympathetic to the manufacturing agenda. For manufacturers, there is no political terra incognita to steer clear of.

The NAM believes the case for manufacturing remains strong no matter where the lines in Washington are drawn. Our map embraces the entire nation and the people within it, where manufacturing creates job, builds communities and drives the American economy.

A former three-term governor of Michigan, John Engler is president and chief executive of the National Association of Manufacturers, the largest industrial trade association in the United States.