Most of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s lobbying work focuses on state and local issues. On rare occasions, the chamber will send an envoy to Washington. With the research funding that underpins the city’s economy under threat, this is one of those times.
Chris Eicher, the Boston chamber’s vice president of government relations, and Emily Baer, its director of research, went to Washington to meet with federal leaders and peers on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a broader push to support federal research funding. The Detroit Regional Chamber oversaw the logistics, and the 15-person contingent included two emissaries from the New England Council, Emily Heisig and Mariah Healy.
This past spring, the Boston chamber spearheaded the revival of a multistate coalition of business groups to advocate for stable federal research funding after the Trump administration put the brakes on billions of dollars worth of grants. Chamber chief executive Jim Rooney helped launch the coalition during Trump’s first administration, and prodded it to swing into action during Trump 2.0, to make the case for the importance of federal funding to local economies. (In the case of Massachusetts, a recent UMass Donahue Institute report estimates that more than $8 billion in federal research funds comes here annually.)
“Little by little, we began hearing from other states that had participated, reaching out to us, saying, ‘Maybe we should get it going again, notably [from] Pennsylvania and Michigan,” Rooney said. “Within two weeks in April, we had 50 signed up.”
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Now, that number is up to 82 chambers and other business groups across 35 states, many of them Republican-leaning.
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This trip to Washington represented the first time coalition members made the case in person, in this go-around. Rooney estimates at least 35 congressional offices were visited.
“We had some pretty positive responses,” Eicher said. “I won’t say every meeting was universally positive. Responses were varied but there was a general receptivity to our message.”
This is an installment of our weekly Bold Types column about the movers and shakers on Boston’s business scene.
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.