I’ve just returned from “The Hill”, that’s Capitol Hill - where about 60 members of the NBFAA (National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association), including three prominent manufacturers in this industry, gathered to lobby for passage of series of bills that they’re working hard to get on the dockets and or passed or repealed in both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate.
If you’ve never lobbied on the hill, I’d highly recommend it. It is the epitome of the Democratic process -- a process quite unique in this world. In one of the sprawling building complexes, having as many basement levels as it has above the street (nothing can be taller than the Capitol) sit all the state representatives offices. In another complex, thus never the two should meet, sit all the senate offices. And in the halls of both buildings come the lines of Americans, organized or not, in pursuit of the ear of their congress person. Some folks have their issues on their sleeves, and I mean that literally. The come sporting tee shirts, arm bands, buttons and name tags with their mission boldly displayed. Some come alone, but most come in well organized groups, like we were, with scheduled meeting with as many congress members as they can see, to share their collective thoughts.

In 15-minute back-to-back intervals, all day long, the congress members, yes them personally, and their aides met with and listened us and to the voices and requests of their constituents. In only one meeting, out of all the dozens of meeting we had, did I feel that the aid was not prepared and would have no influence in the matters discussed. Otherwise, the discussions were frank and informative; everyone made their positions clear stating their concerns, needs, desires and goals. And differences were made by our meeting.

What were the issues at hand?

First was H.R. 1939, the Electronic Life Safety and Security Systems Federal Background Check. The “Reader’s Digest” version of this bill will be to allow the industry, thru the NBFAA, access to FBI’s background records -- for any employee hired by a security company -- thus allowing you to reach across state boundaries that now limit the amount of information that you can garner on any one of your employees. One of the house representatives quizzically asked: Do you mean that a security professional installing and managing a security system in a federal building today might not have been fully screened nationally? Do you mean they could have a record and you would not know about it? You could see his sense of safety was visibly shaken when we had to answer, “Yes, this is so, not only could they be in a federal building but in a school, at a damn, nuclear power plant or...”