McKinnon Represents NEBTA at Legislative Day in Washington, DC
Kerin McKinnon, Atlas Travel International's executive vice president of global business development, was chosen as the 2007 New England Business Travel Association (NEBTA) representative to the National Business Travel Association's Annual Legislative Day. In early June, McKinnon traveled to Washington, DC for two days and received a crash course in how to get legislation through Congress. Day One included various educational sessions with congressional leaders and Capitol Hill lobbyists, who briefed NBTA representatives about the workings of the legislative process, including how to introduce, debate, gain support for and pass key legislation.
On Day Two, McKinnon headed to Capitol Hill and met with key legislators from Massachusetts including Senator Kennedy's Senior Legislative Aide Ron Carlton, Congressman John Olver's Chief of Staff Hunter Rigeway and Congressman John Tierney's Senior Legislative Aide. They discussed H.R. 2453, a bi-partisan bill introduced in Congress on May 23, 2007, to abolish discriminatory rental car taxes in Massachusetts and throughout the United States. While the bill has no opposition at the moment, McKinnon strongly urges all business travel professsionals to show support of this bill through communication with your U.S. senators' offices (Kennedy and Kerry in Massachusetts) and the U.S. representative from your company's district. If your company has a Government Affairs Department, contact them and brief them on why they should weigh in on this important issue. If you do not have a department dedicated to government affairs, it is important to take some time to familiarize yourself with the legislation and contact your U.S. senators' and representative's offices as soon as possible in support of this bill.
For complete detail of the legislation, visit http://www.nbta.org/traveltaxes
For direct access to your representatives in congress, visit http://capwiz.com/nbta/home/
If you have further questions on this issue, please contact Kerin McKinnon at kerin.mckinnon@atlastravel.com