Carrie Goes to Washington
- Carrie LeZotte
- Apr 10
- 2 min read
I made my first trip to "Hill Day" in Washington, D.C. with the Alliance for Community Media, where we met with our elected officials in the US Senate and House of Representatives (or more accurately, their staff).
Our goal was to focus on three main priorities: Stopping Federal Preemption of local rights; Reversing the FCC’s 2019 In-Kind Rule which drains local resources from community television operations; and Providing appropriate oversight of the current FCC to ensure it doesn’t harm local communities.
While those priorities were specific requests, the trip was generally to build a relationship with our representatives, remind them of the critical function we provide in delivering information to local communities, and explain a bit about how we're not PBS (I like to say we're like hyper-local C-SPAN.)
The ACM set up a couple of meetings for me and since it was my first time, I was led around by Shelby Couch (who also served as my photographer!) Shelby said I really filled out my Hill Day bingo card by having a scheduled meeting with staff (Gary Peters), a "hallway meeting" (Haley Stevens), dropping in for unscheduled visits (Debbie Dingell & Rashida Tlaib) and having a photo taken with an elected official (Elissa Slotkin!)
I also have to say I got a little thrill out of being able to put a push-pin on the map in Congresswoman Tlaib's office, the first in my little Village of Franklin to pay her a visit.
It was a privilege to represent the communities I serve in this way.
At the bottom of this post you'll see the leave-behind documents the ACM provided for us.
留言