ASQ Meets with House Appropriations Committee Chairman
Congressman Lewis Key to Securing Funding for Baldrige Nonprofit Category

San Bernardino, CA — ASQ President Jerry Mairani and Amy Kimball, ASQ’s Washington representative, led a group of Baldrige supporters who met with Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, to press the case for funding for the new Baldrige nonprofit category.

The meeting was highly significant for ASQ, for the Baldrige community, and the nonprofit sector, given the intense competition for funding that Congress is facing as it attempts to complete work on the major appropriations bills. And it represented a rare opportunity for the president of ASQ to meet face-to-face with one of the most influential lawmakers and appropriators on a matter that has concerned ASQ for several years.

“I’m confident we presented a good case for the funding,” said Mairani.

Chairman Lewis said that he would confer with Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who has been a strong supporter of the nonprofit funding in the Senate. Amy Kimball, who has been directing the legislative work on the Baldrige effort, interpreted that as a good sign, as the House and Senate are about to meet in conference committee to agree on funding requests, and the Senate has already included the necessary funding in its version of the appropriations bill.

“If we take the appropriate steps following this very important and very positive meeting, we can be assured we have done everything possible legislatively to get this done this year,” Kimball said.

Joining Mairani and Kimball were individuals from various California organizations, including California state quality award winners, who explained to Chairman Lewis the positive impact Baldrige has had in California. They included: Howard Chambers, Boeing senior vice president; Tom Hinton, president & CEO of the California Council for Excellence; Ken Marion of North Island Credit Union; Tony Pack, general manager, and Claire Harrison, legislative director, from the Eastern Municipal Water District; Denise Shields of the Shields Resource Group; Skip Zeiler and Dick White of Magneto-Inductive Systems Limited (MISL); and California Council for Excellence board member Sheryel Eberwein of Computer Sciences Corporation, who was also representing ASQ’s Inland Empire Section.

The meeting took place on August 20 at the MISL offices, where the congressman was presiding over a ribbon-cutting for the company’s new manufacturing facility.

Mairani and Kimball were pleased with the impression the group had on Chairman Lewis, the lawmaker who is now the key to securing the Baldrige funding. They believe he now understands the depth and breadth of support for the Baldrige nonprofit category among other legislators in Washington and among their constituents throughout the country.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (fifth from left) meets with ASQ and other Baldrige supporters including (l-r) Amy Kimball, ASQ’s Washington representative; Sheryel M. Eberwein of Computer Sciences Corporation and ASQ’s Inland Empire Section; ASQ President Jerry Mairani; Tony Pack of the Eastern Municipal Water District; Tom Hinton of the California Council for Excellence; Howard Chambers of The Boeing Company; Skip Zeiler of MISL; Denise Shields of the Shields Resource Group; and Ken Marion of North Island Credit Union.