Joint policy meeting held to help refine the small business agenda for the 2024 sessions of each state’s Legislature
Members of NFIB Oregon’s and NFIB Washington state’s Leadership Councils met in Cannon Beach October 3-5 to discuss policy proposals expected to surface in the 2024 session of each state’s Legislature, and to hear invited experts from as far away as Washington, D.C., provide a national picture.
“We are the true voice of small business because it is only small business owners who set NFIB’s national and state agendas, and these leadership council meetings are a way to unify that voice into a cohesive whole,” said Anthony Smith, NFIB Oregon state director and host of the meeting.
A predominate issue at the meeting has been small businesses’ No. 1 issue for more than 30 years—health care. Josselin Castillo, NFIB’s Federal Government Relations Manager with the portfolio for health care, provided a national overview on the issue.
That was followed the next day by a health-care affordability panel that included:
- Bill Kramer, Purchase Business Group on Health
- Lois Cook, America’s Phone Guys
- Josselin Castillo, NFIB Federal Government Relations Manager
- Greg Biryla, NFIB State Government Relations Manager
- Anthony Smith NFIB Oregon State Director
Also making presentations at the meeting were:
- Matthew Woolley, NFIB Regional Political Manager
- Steve Roe, NFIB Regional Sales Director
- Stacy Jenkins, NFIB Senior Grassroots Program Manager
Biryla and Smith also discussed the tax policies, labor and employment, and energy and environment initiatives expected to come out of the ever-increasing number of progressive state representatives in Salem and Olympia.
NFIB-member small business owners are the most highly regarded and listened-to Main Street entrepreneurs because elected officials and policymakers know NFIB to be the true voice of small business comprised entirely of actual small business owners.
Interested in joining NFIB’s Leadership Council? Click here for Oregon and here for Washington state to find out what the commitment entails and to email Stacy Jenkins with any questions or to join.
Greg Biryla, left, NFIB State Government Relations Manager and Bill Kramer, right, from Purchase Business Group on Health, speak to NFIB members
