BANNOCKBURN, IL – After nearly 15 years and plenty of promise but few successes, the IPC today disbanded its Government Relations committee.

The committee has been a focal point for years, having acted as the trade group’s member liaison to its lobbying activities. It coordinated an annual industry lobbying day, and helped to raise the industry’s awareness – if not its influence – at the congressional level.

However, most of its major rallying points failed to gain much traction in Washington and debate was growing over what the group's role should be as IPC members became more global. According to the former member a determining factor was the GR committee’s stance on Congress’ latest “Buy America” bill. The committee supported it, but some large multinational IPC members did not, the member said.

The bill would have required Department of Defense contractors to increase the amount of manufactured content purchased from American suppliers to 65% from 50%, and would have mandated the DoD buy critical components from U.S. sources where available. It came under fire by many companies and groups – and even some administration officials – in Washington and was ultimately quashed.

IPC spokesman John Kania told Circuits Assembly the move was some time in coming. "In May the IPC board looked at the [committee's] mission statement and found that it didn’t fit with IPC's global mission. So they created a task force to make recommendations on what to do."

That task force, which included Bob Ferguson, Joe O’Neill, Mike Brown, Jack Calderon, Dan Feinberg, Peter Bigelow and Dick Crowe, recommended a new mission statement to include working with all governments, not just that of the U.S., Kania said. 

However, in the wake of the old committee will come a new one that could be different in makeup but will continue to press on many of the same issues. Kania said IPC will work continue its efforts in Washington on business issues, but will partner with groups in such areas as Brussels and Beijing. "You won’t see any change in GR activity beyond an expansion of our activity to an international level."

One problem with the previous GR committee, according to Kania, was that it wasn’t representative of all industry sectors. Key constituents like materials and equipment suppliers were not covered by the committee, he said. IPC will expand the committee, write a charter, and add rules regarding elections and terms, he said.  

For example, he said, committee members will have to be a high ranking executive of their company and be able to commit company resources. Interested parties may contact Kania at IPC.

The new committee will be similar to the last group in terms of its ability to drive policy. Some items would need IPC board approval, others won’t. “They will have some autonomy to make decisions,” Kania said.

Asked whether IPC had the contacts to influence foreign governments, Kania responded, “I know people on the ground [in Asia and Europe] and will formally engage them. We will join some organizations that are on the ground there; some are U.S.-based. It will be similar to IPC being a member of the California Chamber of Commerce.”

The organization’s annual Capitol Hill Day event won't take place in 2007, although a lobbying day in Sacramento, CA, will go on as planned.

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