Spokane leaders to visit D.C.to survey of the federal landscape to find solutions to regional economic issues.

Twenty-seven area business and government leaders will spend three days in Washington, D.C., this week. The annual visit is part salesmanship, and part survey of the federal landscape to find solutions to regional issues.

Tom Sowa
Staff writer Spokesman Review

Among the goals of the trip: infrastructure upgrades to ease transportation problems; ensuring federal support for Fairchild Air Force Base; Spokane-based economic development; medical care reimbursements, and studies to protect the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer.

The event is organized by the Spokane, Post Falls, Spokane Valley and West Plains chambers of commerce, and is dubbed the Regional Chambers D.C. Fly-In.

The group will spend Monday in focused meetings with Defense Department officials, followed by a discussion of dam relicensing with representatives of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The meeting will examine concerns by managers of Ponderay Newsprint who say their business would be disrupted if proposed environmental changes along the Pend Oreille River are approved.

The group will also meet with U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt to cover a range of issues, said Rich Hadley, president of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Tuesday’s meetings include visits with Washington Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and with members of Idaho’s congressional delegation. Tuesday’s schedule also includes a visit to the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Hadley said the purpose was to "advocate for fairness in federal Medicare rates," which have a direct impact on the well-being of area hospitals.

Some members of the delegation will meet Wednesday with federal Department of Transportation officials to discuss improvements to area railroad crossings.

Local business and government leaders are hoping to secure about $270 million in the 2004 federal budget to eliminate or simplify 65 street-level railroad crossings in North Idaho and Washington.

That issue is tied to enhancing the region’s commercial benefits for businesses. "Having to wait for trains ruins the economic advantages you have in the community," Hadley said.

Another topic to be addressed is a long-term goal to create a university district master plan that would consolidate the academic and business resources shared by WSU Spokane, Eastern Washington University, the two main Spokane hospitals and Gonzaga University.

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