Session 4

Session 4-Illinois and DC

David Dewit

The topic of this journey was Federal Legislation. We traveled first to Green field Illinois and met with the Elanco Rep. We learned about all the things that Elanco is doing to benefit the dairy industry as a whole. We then traveled to Washington, D.C. We had two full days of visiting with politicians who were on our side.

·         Brian Billbrae rep. Andrew Lund

·         Debbie Jessup a rep for Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard.

·         Kristen Glenn rep for Tom McClintock

·         John Lowry for Joe Bacha

·         Lillian McFarlan and Devin Rhinerson rep Senator Diane Feinstein

·         Staff Member from Senator Barbara Boxer

During these meetings we firmly pressed these reps to understand the problems we has farmers face, and we gave possible solutions as well.

The following day we were back at the Capitol meeting with Kyle Lombardi, rep for Congressman McCarthy and others. We did get the opportunity to walk to Kim Altons office who is a representative for Diane Feinstein and got to voice concerns about labor laws.

After meeting these people I had a better understanding of how this system works. If you don’t speak up you will be ignored. Influences revolve around wealth and opinions. WUD is fighting many issues underground. We should all have an appreciation for the things they do than only a few get to see first hand.