Several hundred business leaders and elected officials gathered in Spokane in September for the annual AWB Policy Summit. The spotlight was on the 2024 elections with AWB hosting debates for governor, attorney general, lands commissioner and superintendent of public instruction.
Skylar Olsen, chief economist for Zillow Group, kicked off the event with a morning keynote address, and AWB’ s Government Affairs team provided a look ahead to the 2025 legislative session. The agenda also included a panel discussion titled“ Building Bridges” with Snohomish County Councilmembers Jared Mead, a Democrat, and Nate Nehring, a Republican.
In December, AWB marked a decade of leading employer delegations to the nation’ s capital by hosting the 10th annual D. C. Fly-In. Employers from a diverse set of businesses met with Washington’ s congressional delegation, plus leaders of federal agencies and our national partners.
Topics of discussion included everything from trade and infrastructure to workforce and child care, and the group received briefings from the National Association of Manufacturers on potential legislation coming from Congress, and the group discussed trade, energy, tariffs and agriculture during meetings with the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the embassy of the United Kingdom, and the U. S. departments of Energy and Agriculture.
“ It was great to see AWB leaders here in the Other Washington to discuss everything from trade and infrastructure to our state’ s workforce and child care needs— & I look forward to continuing to work together to make sure our businesses, communities, & families have what they need to succeed.”
U. S. Sen. Patty Murray on X, following her meeting with AWB’ s D. C. Fly-In delegation
awb annual report 2024 | p. 7