Itinerary

U.S. Mayors Launch “Keep America Moving” Effort to Boost Infrastructure, Manufacturing & Jobs

June 12th D.C. Event Will Call for Stronger U.S. Manufacturing Policies & Infrastructure Investments to Support Sustainable Local Communities

American communities are struggling to maintain viable economies and local quality of life. A central challenge is to maintain the nation’s manufacturing sector, in both traditional industries and emerging high-tech and green job sectors. This challenge is even greater because U.S. localities are struggling to maintain and improve critical, outmoded infrastructure that is needed to keep the economy moving, including transportation, energy, water/wastewater and other physical and economic infrastructure.

Mayors and other local government officials from across the nation will join with allies from the private and public sectors to convene a “Keep America Moving” event in Washington on June 12, 2012 that will call for new and invigorated efforts to boost American manufacturing, infrastructure investment, and jobs creation. This effort will launch a new Keep America Moving agenda of policies and actions that the nation should undertake, and this event will be used to form new alliances among local and state governments, manufacturers and business organizations, labor unions, non-profit organizations and federal officials to move this agenda forward. This event is organized by a new “Mayors for America” campaign together with the Mayors Automotive Coalition and other allied organizations.

This conference will take place on Tuesday, June 12th at the Senate Visitors Center,
Room 212-10.

10:15-11:15 AM
Keep America Moving Roundtable: The event will kick off with a moderated roundtable of local government, federal government, business, union and other leaders who will discuss what America needs an invigorated agenda for investment in U.S. manufacturing. Invitees: Mayor Michael Nutter, City of Philadelphia; Mayor Virg Bernero, City of Lansing; Governor Dan Malloy, State of Connecticut; John Engler, President, Business Roundtable; Leo Gerard, International President, United Steelworkers; Bob King, President, United Auto Workers; Secretary of Commerce John Bryson / NEC Chairman Gene Sperling, Co-Chairs of White House Office of Manufacturing Policy; Scott Paul, Executive Director, Alliance for American Manufacturing; Elliott Laws, Trustee, RACER Trust.

11:30 AM-12:00 PM
Press Conference & Launch of “Mayors for America” Campaign: Event participants will hold a press conference to announce the launch of the “Mayors for America” campaign, a national effort to encourage local governments to adopt ‘buy local’ and ‘buy American’ policies.

12:00-12:30 PM
Lunch

12:30-1:20 PM
Federal Forum on American Jobs: This panel will include federal officials from the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Economic Development Administration, the Department of Labor, the National Economic Council, the Department of Energy, other federal agencies, and both parties in Congress. It will focus on finding areas for common ground and progress on jobs creation, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Invitees: Jay Williams, Director of the Office of Recovery for Auto Communities & Workers; U.S. EPA Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus; DOL Assistant Secretary Jane Oates; Acting Assistant Secretary of Energy Henry Kelly, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; Acting Assistant Secretary for the EDA Matthew Erskine.

1:25-2:10 PM
Panel on U.S. Infrastructure Investment: This panel will feature representatives of the nation’s leading organizations seeking to boost investment in U.S. infrastructure, to talk about the economic and community benefits of such investment. Invitees: Tom Cochran, U.S. Conference of Mayors; Larry Naake, Executive Director, National Association of Counties; Don Borut, Executive Director, National League of Cities; Robert O’Neill, Executive Director, ICMA; Geoff Anderson, Co-Chair of Transportation for America; John Robert Smith, Co-Chair of Transportation for America; Adam Krantz, Managing Director, National Association of Clean Water Agencies; Patrick Natale, Executive Director, American Society of Civil Engineers.

2:15-3:00 PM
Panel on Buying Local/American: This panel will discuss the community-wide benefits of prioritizing local or American-made products through municipal procurement procedures. It will also discuss the new “Mayors for America” campaign and how communities can sign up and participate, including a “Toolbox for Buying Local & Buying American,” a new cooperative procurement network to promote the purchase of American goods, a new interactive website to promote U.S. products, and a “Community Pledge to Buy Local & Buy American” that will be issued to local leaders across the nation. Invitees: Mayor Virg Bernero, Mayor Michael Nutter, mayors that have taken the MFA pledge already, Tom Cochran, Executive Director, U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Hotel Information:

Since the summit will begin early in the morning on Tuesday, June 12th and end in the mid-afternoon, we have booked a block of hotel rooms for the night of Monday, June 11th. These rooms are available at the Best Western Georgetown at 1121 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20037 and the rate is $224/night for the standard guest suite (single or double occupancy). Please review the rooms by May 18th and you can do so by calling the Best Western and referencing the “Mayor’s MAC Group” or “The Ferguson Group.” Our hotel contact is Charlie Davis.

Before the summit starts at the Capitol Visitor Center with the first panel at 10:15, we will be holding a breakfast for MAC communities in the National Association of Realtors building at the 500 New Jersey Avenue NW on the 6th floor. This building is a short walk from Capitol Hill and will allow us to convene before heading over there. You will also be able to drop off your luggage and store it in this building until after the summit if you wish. We will send out information about the exact time of the breakfast closer to the summit, but we expect it to be around 8:30 am.