IEEE Members Meet With Rep. Tom DeLay

By Russell Harrison

On 6 March 2006, the IEEE's Houston and Galveston Bay Sections held a joint meeting with one of their members of Congress, Representative Tom DeLay. Rep. DeLay, the former House Majority Leader, joined the sections for about an hour and a half to discuss issues of concern to IEEE members in eastern Texas.

In addition to listening to the concerns brought forth by IEEE members, Rep. Delay shared his thoughts on a few issues affecting his constituency, particularly engineers:

• NASA — Rep. DeLay expressed concerns about America's ability to innovate. However, he remains hopeful that NASA can play a prominent role in fostering innovation — which is one of the reasons he has worked hard over the years to increase the agency's budget. He would like to see NASA focus more on space exploration, including sending a man to Mars. He also thinks NASA could do more to help promote commercial space exploration.

• Nuclear Power — Rep. DeLay wants to help the nuclear power industry expand by providing a stable regulatory environment in which nuclear energy companies could operate. Constantly shifting regulations make it impossible for investors to predict the long-term viability of a nuclear plant, discouraging the initial investment.

• Immigration — Rep. DeLay acknowledges that the H-1B visa program needs to be reformed, but would rather it come about as part of a comprehensive immigration reform bill. He is hopeful that such a reform bill could be passed this year.

Houston Section Chair Donald Dunn and IEEE member Paul Barrett coordinated the meeting. In September 2005, the Section sent Rep. DeLay's staff a formal invitation to join both the Houston and Galveston Bay Sections for a private town-hall style meeting. After months of discussions trying to match the Congressman's schedule with that of the section, a date was finally reached in early February.

Rep. DeLay's district includes parts of both the Houston and Galveston Bay sections. To maximize turnout, every IEEE member in both sections received an invitation, with special attention paid to IEEE members in the Congressman's district. In the end, about 35 IEEE members and spouses attended, matching the section's expectations.

Rep. DeLay was the House Majority Leader, the second most powerful person in the House of Representatives, until late last year. He has represented his Congressional District for more than 22 years, and was instrumental in securing several hundred million dollars to continue space shuttle flights in 2004. IEEE members in East Texas wanted to thank Rep. DeLay for protecting NASA and their jobs, and encourage him to continue to strengthen engineering in their region.

IEEE-USA worked with the Houston and Galveston Bay Section to arrange this event, and has worked with dozens of IEEE member and sections in the past few years to arrange similar events. All sections are encouraged to consider inviting local politicians to section meetings. Doing so is a great way to build relationships with legislators, many of whom will one day vote on legislation affecting engineers. Sections interested in learning more about working with politicians should contact IEEE-USA Russ Harrison at r.t.harrison@ieee.org.

Russell T. Harrison is IEEE-USA's Legislative Representative for Grassroots Activities. Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.