7th Annual DC Fly-in Successfully Engaged Our Congressional Delegation

The Chamber of Commerce traveled to Washington D.C. in late October with community leaders, including Mayor Collins and representatives from the Gillete and Casper Chambers of Commerce. During our trip, we met with our congressional delegation to advocate for the future of Wyoming. 

“I appreciate the chamber of commerce for annually making the trek to D.C. to engage our delegation in discussions about issues that matter to Cheyenne,” said Mayor Collins. “We had 27 people that told our story and asked for support.”

During our trip we met with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They gave their perspective on the infrastructure bill and the impact it will have on Wyoming. It’s projected to bring over two billion dollars to our state to help with our backlog of road maintenance, broadband, bridges, and water infrastructure. 

We met with Senator Lummis in her office, and she updated us on her committee assignments in Banking, Environment and Public Works, and Commerce. She was also recently assigned as the ranking member of the Science and Space sub-committee, which comes with the exciting opportunity to expose Wyoming businesses to potential development in the space sector. 

Representative Liz Cheney spoke with us within the Capitol Building. Rep. Cheney is on the House Armed Services Committee and has been a great supporter of our local military in Washington D.C. We discussed what needs to be done for GBSD between now and when the program gets underway. Part of this discussion was our efforts to begin housing development to help with the shortage of housing for our military members. The 153rd Air Lift Squadron has an economic impact of more than $300 million a year to our local economy. 

Our last congressional meeting was with Senator John Barrasso. The biggest concern he shared was the plan to require banks to report transactions from $600, and how he and all our delegation are working to kill this idea. He understands how inflation is hurting Wyoming families and the stress of making ends meet. Sen. Barrasso also spoke with us about the administration’s energy program and how we can navigate the present and future energy production industry.

We talked with all our congressional representatives about the vaccine mandates, and they all support the vaccine. However, they do not support the mandate.

In addition to our Wyoming delegation, Representative Adrian Smith of the Nebraska 3rd District met with chamber representatives and Elyse Schlage, the economic development director from Kimball who joined us on the trip. GBSD will have a big impact on the western Nebraska and Kimball area, and it is important for us to all be working together. The impact to housing and infrastructure will be felt in Nebraska for more than a decade.

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Story by J. Elizabeth Bennett

Elizabeth Bennett serves the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce as the Director of Marketing and Communications. She is passionate about working with the diverse communities in Cheyenne and creating accessible communications material that engages our chamber members.