Geosynthetic Materials Association: Report from D.C.

March 8, 2010 | By Ron Bygness and Andrew Aho

Ron: Andrew, you just returned from several days in Washington, D.C. Give us a rundown on your activities.

Andrew: On March 1, GMA had a joint dinner with representatives from the U.S. Industrial Fabrics Institute (USIFI). USIFI, like GMA, is a division of IFAI, and it represents U.S. manufacturers and suppliers of technical textiles.

Officials from the Department of Commerce, including the chief textile negotiator from the U.S. Trade Office, joined 50 members of USIFI and GMA for dinner. Joung Lee, a financial analyst for AASHTO shared his take on transportation funding (or more accurately, the lack of funding) with the group.

The next day was packed with 18 meetings with Members of Congress and their staffs. The meetings were designed to garner support for the use of geosynthetic liners in coal-ash waste sites and also for support of a GMA-proposed geotextiles-as-separators study. GMA has had a steady presence on Capitol Hill the past several years and many of the Members of Congress we spoke with were familiar with the GMA issues and were very supportive.

For more information about GMA: amaho@ifai.com, 651 225 6907

Ron Bygness is the editor of Geosynthetics magazine. Andrew Aho is the managing director of the Geosynthetic Materials Association (GMA).

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