Political advocacy marches forward

A lot of things have changed in the COVID-19 environment that we live in.

ABC has been forced to make changes to its meetings, events and business development opportunities.

In addition to training programs, one of ABC's primary functions is political advocacy. ABC interviews all candidates, makes endorsements and gives contributions to political campaigns. We monitor all races to try to get candidates elected who are pro-business and believe in the merit shop philosophy. However, the pandemic has made it very difficult to meet all candidates and make the correct endorsements. 

This year, our focus has been on issues in the state legislature. There are thousands of bills filed each legislative session in Texas. These sessions only occur in odd years, so it is very important to get any issues resolved during the current session. ABC has identified several high-priority issues that are important to the construction industry.

The question then became, "How do we communicate the important issues to the elected officials who will be voting on those bills?" In a normal year, we would gather about 50 ABC members and take a bus for an overnight visit to the Texas Capitol in Austin. We would schedule visits with each of the 45 representatives and senators who represent ABC members in the Greater Houston area. We have found that personal meetings are far more effective in making sure our message is received and understood than any other method of communication. But large group restrictions and masks requirements would not allow our normal process to happen.

So, COVID-19 forced ABC to call a couple of audibles to get our message to elected officials. We first started using Zoom to meet with a couple of elected officials on each call. This allowed many ABC members to watch officials answer questions about our issues. We set those up weekly and reached 15 representatives on those calls. However, we found we were missing the human interaction that is so important in the educational process.

We then began scheduling in-person visits with the senators and representatives in their offices in Austin. We took a small group of ABC members to Austin and sat down face-to-face with these elected officials. These meetings have proven to be more effective than normal because the pandemic has kept most advocacy groups at home. ABC is one of the few associations making visits to the Texas Capitol, and we are getting a much better reception than we normally do.

Since Texas' regular legislative session ended May 31, we feel that our continued efforts to advocate for the construction industry this year may result in many future dividends for ABC members. It was an unexpected consequence of the pandemic that we have been able to take advantage of. We have been more effective this legislative session than in a normal year without the pandemic hurdles. Who would have thought that COVID-19 would be good for something?

Very few elected officials have any knowledge about the construction industry. While they might understand general business issues, they usually do not know about the specific issues that are unique to construction. We take the time to explain what the challenges are in construction and why it is so difficult to be successful.

If they can grasp the challenges facing the industry, we then need to explain how certain legislation can help solve or at least minimize those challenges. Sometimes it is not apparent how changes in the law can have intended and unintended consequences.

We do not try to change the deeply set opinions of conservatives or liberals, and we rarely get into discussions that would raise your emotional blood pressure. Our intention is to be a trusted business advisor and to educate elected officials on issues they are uninformed about. Almost all of them are grateful that we take the time to talk about specific issues.

For more information, contact Russell Hamley at (713) 523-6ABC [6222] or r.hamley@abchouston.org.