A Visit to Capitol Hill

May 24, 2016
by Don Berchoff

Last week, we accompanied the American Meteorological Society (AMS) on a visit to Capitol Hill for the AMS Congressional Visit Day (CVD).  The program was run by the staff at the AMS Policy Program Office, led by Ya’el Seid-Green.
The goals of CVDs are to:
Help AMS members learn about Congress;
Build relationships between our community and the Hill; and
Provide Congressional offices with access to the best possible information about weather, water and climate issues.
The AMS’s official policy is they do not advocate policy positions, but rather, offer important geoscience information to help inform policy decisions.  In this round of meetings, we focused on two strategic messages:
The importance of the geosciences in advancing society both in terms of improving American lives and growing the economy
The importance of communications spectrum to improving weather, water and climate forecasts.  There is a desire by the telecommunications industry to acquire more spectrum, that could impede upon spectrum bandwidth that transmits important weather satellite data.
TruWeather Solutions also had the opportunity to meet with Congressional staffers from the two states we now reside, New York and Virginia.  We were proud to represent AMS in these important meetings and thank them for the opportunity for TruWeather Solutions to meet with and discuss important initiatives we are working in both New York and Virginia.