Brooklyn's Progress
June/July 2005

By Stephen Witt

Despite having to evacuate a federal office building because of a possible airborne terrorist, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President Kenneth Adams termed the organization’s annual lobbying trip to Washington, D.C. a rousing success.

Mr. Adams said the alert occurred just after the group arrived in the nation’s capital and were about to have a working lunch with Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez.

“We certainly had a unique welcome and taste of the high-security environment in Washington,” recalled Mr. Adams.
 The evacuation proved to be a false alarm caused by the errant flight of a small Cessna that had gone off course.

Other than that excitement, Mr. Adams said the group of 24 Chamber Members, including a cross-section of large and small businesses and non-profit organizations, had productive meetings with the elected Brooklyn delegation in Washington.

Among Members attending were representatives from New York Methodist Hospital in Park Slope; Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation in Clinton Hill; St. Francis College and ASA Institute, both in Brooklyn Heights; Courier-Life Publications in Sheepshead Bay; Akwaaba Enterprises in Bedford-Stuyvesant; and from Downtown Brooklyn, Con Edison, KeySpan Corporation and the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

“As usual, there was a really good level of chemistry and camaraderie that happened in our group,” said Mr. Adams.

Among the issues raised on the trip were the Chamber’s support of federal money for a rail link between Manhattan and JFK airport to include two stops in Downtown Brooklyn, and support for the reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the Twenty First Century (TEA-21).

The Chamber group also pressed the importance of keeping Fort Hamilton Military Base and Brooklyn Veterans Administration Hospital open.

“TEA-21 has provided billions of dollars and thousands of jobs to New York State helping to improve the state’s roadways and transit systems,” according to the Chamber’s issues agenda.

TEA-21 would not only allocate money to repair aging transportation infrastructure, but also allocate money to the continued development of the proposed Cross-Harbor Tunnel, said Mr. Adams.

Another issue the Mr. Adams stressed was the Chamber’s opposition to the Bush administration’s plans to merge the Economic Development Administration (EDA) with 18 other federal agencies with the Department of Commerce.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard alone received a half-million dollar grant from the EDA and the borough’s SUNY Downstate Medical Center also received EDA money and the fear is that consolidation will wipe the EDA out, said Mr. Adams.

Congresswoman Velázquez, who is the ranking member of the House Small Business Committee, presented the Chamber with a list of Small Business Association (SBA) programs that have helped small businesses in Brooklyn.

According to the Bush Fiscal Year 2006 proposed budget, several SBA programs will be slashed or completely cut, but aides in Congresswoman Velázquez’s office said they are standard ploys and will be put back in when a final budget is passed.

According to the report Congresswoman Velázquez handed out, the SBA-lending programs doled out over $150 million to small businesses in Brooklyn last year.

The Brooklyn Chamber’s trip to Washington May 11 and 12, was in conjunction with the sixth annual New York Day in Washington event, coordinated by The Chamber Alliance of New York State, Inc. (CANYS).

The two-day event began with a reception inside the Capitol Building.  U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton were the featured speakers at a breakfast.  Both Senators commented on possible base closings in New York as well as specific legislation addressing transportation funding and small business issues.

For more information about the Brooklyn Chamber’s Annual Washington, D.C. Lobbying trip and the Chamber’s Advocacy program, visit http://www.ibrooklyn.com/.