ASQ Congressional Meetings
Baldrige Not-For-Profit Category Funding

July 2005 — Neither July’s heat nor Congress’ focus on a certain Supreme Court appointee deterred ASQ’s efforts to get the U.S. House of Representatives to fund the nonprofit category of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

In meetings just before Congress’ summer recess, ASQ managing director Laurel Nelson-Rowe, along with Amy Kimball of ASQ’s Washington advocacy team, pressed the case for funding the nonprofit category with members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Science, State, Justice and Commerce, which has jurisdiction over funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). NIST operates the Baldrige office within the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s (D-RI) legislative director, Kimber Colton, expressed Kennedy’s continued support for the Baldrige program and Kennedy’s commitment to secure the $1.5 million in new funding for the nonprofit category. Kennedy has included these funds in the appropriations list he plans to send to the Appropriations Committee leadership, Colton said.

If funding for the nonprofit category is included in the House or Senate bill, award planners could probably count on getting at least half of the requested amount, said J.T. Griffin, legislative assistant to House Appropriations Chairman Frank Wolf (R-VA).

And because the funding for the nonprofit category is already in the Senate appropriations bill, the effort is well-positioned to get funding this year, said Diaraf Thiouf, senior legislative assistant to Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY). Thiouf said Serrano remains a big supporter of NIST and would support the funding request.

The following week, during NIST’s Annual Conference for directors of state and local quality award programs, Kimball arranged several meetings between directors and Congressional appropriations leaders from their home states. Geri Markley, executive director of the Michigan Quality Council, met with staff representing Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) and Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI). Victoria Taylor, who chairs The Alliance (an organization formed by state and local quality award programs) and serves as executive director of the Georgia Oglethorpe Award Process, met with staff representing Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) and Rep. Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (D-GA). All were impressed with the Baldrige program and how it affects so many with such a small investment from the government.