Fall Capitol Hill Fly-in

VMA had a great fly-in late last month, with 11 VMA members taking part in 14 meetings with offices from both the House and Senate – 2 of which were with the Representatives themselves. The focus of the day was to help explain and educate on why PFAS materials should be segmented, managed and regulated differently based on their hazards and risk, and on the benefits provided by low hazard PFAS materials commonly used in seals, linings, packing and more applications. With much of the current focus from both legislators and regulators in the US, Canada and Europe to treat all PFAS and materials using any type of PFAS in the same way, it is important to explain the huge impacts this could have on the modern way of life, and impacts on the environment, security, economy and much more. (and on R&D expense and workforce bills). In addition, we also discussed some tax issues around the expensing of research and development activities and ways to support workforce training. VMA meeting (bolded names were meetings with the Congressman directly):

· Office: Chrissy Houlihan (PA-6)
· Office: Senator Cornyn (TX)
· Rep Meeting: Congressman Tom Kean Jr. (NJ-7)
· Rep Meeting: Congressman Mike Carey (R-OH15)
· Office: Rep Wesley Hunt (Tx-38) (Meeting was originally planned to be with Hunt directly, but was changed due to the vote)
· Office: Senator Capito (WV) / Republican Environmental and Public Works Staffer
· Office: John Sarbanes (MD-03)
· Office: Senator Grassley’s Office (IA)
· Office: Senator Fetterman (PA)
· Office : Senator Brown (OH)
· Office: Senator JD Vance (OH)
· Office: Guy Reschenthaler (PA-14)
· Office: Senator Ben Cardin (MD)
· Office: Senator Casey (PA)

Following up from the visits, VMA will continue to work with its counterparts in the US and elsewhere to educate policymakers, and also to help put forth common sense approaches for managing and categorizing PFAS materials based on their properties and risks.