This year's conference, which was held April 28 through April 30, was the 9th annual gathering of members from unions representing engineers and related professionals working for state transportation departments across the country.

We heard presentations from congressional members and staffers, including Connecticut's Rosa DeLauro (D-New Haven) and former State Department of Transportation Commissioner Emil Frankel.

Some of the additional presenters included staff members from the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure, the Committee on Environment and Public Works, the Senate Banking Committee and the President of the AFL-CIO's Transportation Trades Department.

We lobbied congressional members on several pieces of federal legislation supported by NASHTU. Priority bills include Representative Bob Filner's (D-CA) H.R. 2485, which requires public employees to perform inspection of state and local transportation projects, and Representative Carolyn Kilpatrick's (D-MI) H.R. 3621, which requires a cost-benefit analysis before contracting-out.

Kevin and I met with members and staff from the rest of Connecticut's House delegation and urged co-sponsorship for Representative DeLauro's H.R. 3896, the National Infrastructure Development Act (NIDA). This is the bill she reached out to SEIU to support earlier this year, and is an example of the kind of initiative that provides funding that state governments need for the coming economic downturn!

There needs to be Senate versions of all three of these bills introduced to get them moving, so we need to contact Senator Chris Dodd and urge him to work to get sister versions of these bills introduced!

We were also presenters at the conference and discussed our "DOT Reform Campaign" in Connecticut. Specifically, we were able to pick-up where we left off from last year's conference and share our success in finally passing a Clean Contracting law. See the slides from our presentation here at our website.

The conference was a great opportunity to connect with fellow union members, reach out to our federal elected officials, and see firsthand that we are part of a wider movement committed to quality public services. I appreciate our union's Executive Council and P-4 Council leadership recognizing the value of labor coalitions like NASHTU, and thank them for sending Kevin and I to represent all of you in our Nation's capitol!