Grangers from across the country came to Washington, DC April 30 and May 1, 2007 to participate in the National Grange's Legislative Fly-In 2007. Fifty-seven rural community leaders arrived at National Grange headquarters in Washington, DC for two days filled with speakers, informational sessions and Congressional visits focusing on priority issues facing rural America including agriculture policy, effective rural telecommunications, health care, immigration reform, and energy security.

Prior to the official beginning of the 2007 Fly-In, two unofficial social events were held for 'early attendees' who traveled to Washington, DC ahead of the official program. On Saturday April 28th, National Grange Director of Sales and Program Development, DoriAnn Gedris and her husband Mark hosted a barbeque for Fly-In attendees, Potomac Grange members, and members of the National Grange Historical Committee at their horse farm in rural Bristow, Virginia. Even a brief thundershower couldn't dampen the spirits of the Grange members in attendance. The event included a special birthday cake as an informal "kick off celebration" to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the founding of the National Grange in 1867.

On Sunday April 29th, Potomac Grange sponsored an outing for Fly-In participants to attend major league baseball in the nation's capitol and watch the Washington Nationals play the New York Mets. In a close "pitching dual" the hometown Nationals lost to the visiting Mets by a score of 1-0. However, the disappointment of the loss was more than compensated by the chance for Fly-In participants to indulge in traditional "ballpark cuisine."

On April 30th, the first day of Fly-In 2007 began with breakfast, announcements and remarks of welcome by National Grange Master, Bill Steel, and National Grange Legislative Director, Leroy Watson. Fly-In participants watched presentations of the National Grange's two information DVDs Methamphetamine: A Menace to Rural America and The Oliver H. Kelley Farm. All National Grange Fly-In participants received copies of these informational videos to take back and share with their local Granges. Fly-In participants also received copies of the 2007 National Grange Legislative Policy Book and Grassroots Training Manual, the 2007 National Grange Blueprint for Rural America and an electronic copy the National Grange Graphic Standards Manual and Grange logos that can be used in state Grange and local Grange publications and promotional materials.

The first speaker to address Fly-In 2007 was Mr. Link Hoewing, Vice-President of Verizon, Inc., one of the nation's largest telecommunications companies. Mr. Hoewing's presentation entitled, Telecommunications Technology Update: Fiber to the Home, Video Franchise Reform and How We are Going to Pay for It All demonstrated how companies like Verizon were investing tens of billions of dollars in expanding and improving Internet access and services to their customers throughout the nation. He explained that the final solution to bringing high speed internet service to all Americans especially those living in the most remote and rural communities, would involve partnerships between corporations, government and non-profit organizations working together in a cooperative manner to solve the problems of extending broadband to all Americans.

The next speaker was Mr. Bill Rosett, Manager of External Liaison for the American Petroleum Institute, the national trade association for the oil and gas industry. In his presentation, Energy Outlook, Mr. Rosett, gave the Grange leaders a historical overview of the energy supply and demand situation in the United States. He noted that in spite of record high retail prices for gasoline, government statistics still indicated that American consumers continued to buy and use record volumes of gasoline. He displayed maps that showed significant, undiscovered reserves of oil and natural gas that still exist within the United States that oil companies are forbidden by law from bringing to market that could increase domestic energy security. Finally, Mr. Rosett reviewed the encouraging prospects for ethanol and biofuels derived from traditional crops. He noted however, that crop-based ethanol production is only part of the answer to energy independence. He said that if all current U.S. cropland was used for corn-based ethanol, it would provide less than half of U.S. gasoline needs, and food prices might skyrocket. He called for agricultural interests to work together with the petroleum industry to come up with mutually beneficial solutions to our nation's energy security challenges.

During lunch, the Fly-In participants heard from the Hon. Michael Dunn, Commissioner, U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission on " Commodity Prices and Market Integrity: Who's Watching the Store?" The CFTC is the primary federal regulatory agency that ensures the integrity of the nation's commodity exchange markets. Commissioner Dunn gave an overview of the regulatory issues facing the CFTC. He explained that the mission of the agency is to promote the competitiveness of U.S. markets and assure that commodity markets serve the interests of farmers and of consumers as effective price discovery and hedging tools. He noted that agricultural commodities that trade on U.S. commodity exchanges play an important role in the national economy as well as in the world marketplace. He encouraged Grange members who had thoughts, ideas or concerns about the functions or transparency of these markets to communicate with the National Grange's representative on the CFTC Agricultural Advisory Committee, Legislative Director Leroy Watson.

Following lunch Fly-In participants received a detailed briefing on Pharmaceutical Research and Development Issues and Their Impact on Rural Health Care from Mr.  John Swen, Vice President Science, Policy and Public Affairs for Pfizer, Inc. Pfizer is the largest research pharmaceutical company in the world. Mr. Swen, outlined the complicated, expensive and scientifically rigorous research and development process that pharmaceutical companies undertake to bring safe, new and effective prescription medications to market. Developing a new medicine can cost up to $1 billion and can take up to 10 years.

Generating the day's most lively debate among Fly-In participants, Mr. Swen fielded tough questions about the practices and motives of his company, and the pharmaceutical industry in general, with straight, honest answers that were greatly appreciated by the Fly-In participants.

Mr. Swen concluded with a summary of the progress being made in basic research that has unlocked many of the secrets of how the human body actually functions. Many of these breakthroughs have come as a result of the "mapping" of the human genome, or the sequence of genes in living cells that control all basic biological functions of human life. He noted that soon it may be possible to design medications that address the individual biological characteristics of small groups of patients, maybe even individual patients. He explained, however that this future was uncertain due to the tremendous financial investment in basic research that was necessary to address the challenges of better utilizing information from the human genome in designing new and more effective medications and the existing regulatory system that presumes that drug safety and testing must occur over large numbers of people before final approval is given for commercial release of a new pharmaceutical product. These requirements would make it difficult for companies to effectively design and test new medications that address conditions specific to individuals who have certain, unique genetic patterns.

The next speaker was Mr. E d Maixner, Editor, Kiplinger Agricultural News Letter who spoke about the 2007 Farm Bill. Kiplinger Agricultural News Letter is one of the most respected news sources for information about agricultural issues in the United States. Mr. Maixner noted that the 2007 Farm Bill was going to be different than the 2002 Farm Bill. Because farm policy has traditionally been non-partisan, the change in party control of Congress following last November's elections was far less likely to have a substantial impact on the deliberations of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees. However, the predictions of high prices for corn and other commodities, driven by new markets for ethanol and bio-fuels, has substantially reduced the allowable spending that the House and Senate Budget Committees have allocated to the 2007 Farm Bill Commodity Title. He noted that there is a broad consensus that additional resources should be put into conservation programs and bio-energy projects in the new Farm Bill.

He also observed that there was greater interest in farm policy reform proposals from non-traditional participants in the farm policy debate, such as environmental organizations, business groups and think tanks. In the past, many of these organizations had only offered criticism of, and opposition to, Farm Bills instead of constructive policy alternatives. The final unique factor in this year's Farm Bill debate was the broad political acceptance of the Farm Bill proposals drafted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and presented to Congress by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns. Mr. Maixner concluded that much of the credit for drafting this proposal can be credited to the public "listening sessions" sponsored by the USDA in 2005 and 2006 which gave thousands of farmers, and others, a chance to express their views on what should be included in the 2007 Farm Bill.

The next speaker was Dr. George Ford of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Policy Studies, a Washington, DC based think tank, on the topic of Network Neutrality, Rural America and Telecommunications Reform. Dr. Ford is the co-author of an influential report issued by the Phoenix Center in 2006 that addresses how the economic impact of a regulatory mandate, like network neutrality, would disproportionately weigh on the costs of bringing broadband Internet service to existing high cost rural areas. Dr. Ford explained how his analysis showed that the reduction in advanced telecommunications service in high cost rural areas could be as much as six times greater than in urban and suburban markets if stringent network neutrality provisions become law.  "In a very real way," Dr. Ford explained, "the burden that a network neutrality mandate would create would be disproportionately (but not exclusively) borne on the back of rural America." Dr. Ford also explained to the Fly-In participants that the findings in the report... "give credence to arguments raised repeatedly by the National Grange about how network neutrality could delay deployment of rural broadband."

Following the formal presentations, a reception and Idea Fair was held in the Goss Conference room of the National Grange building. The Idea Fair included a presentation by a representative from the Partnership for Prescription Assistance, a free nationwide referral service in information about more than 400 patient assistance programs around the country for individuals who have difficulty meeting their prescription medication expenses. The National Grange was a founding organization for PPA. The Idea Fair also included a presentation from a representative from CTIA, the Wireless Association. CTIA is the national trade association for wireless telephone companies. Fly-In participants had the opportunity for one-on-one conversations and networking with each of the Idea Fair presenters.

Following the Idea Fair, the Fly-In attendees moved a few blocks to the Capitol Hilton for dinner. The program for the evening was a provocative speech entitled New Realities of Aging in our Society by Ms. Nona Bear, noted author and elder rights activist.

The second day of Fly-In 2007 found Grangers attending individual meetings on Capitol Hill, assuring that the voice of rural America is heard in the halls of government. Congressional leaders and their staff members were impressed by the broad scope of knowledge and personal experience presented by our members. They left their meetings with solid examples of what the real issues were of concern to the grassroots constituents in their state.

Boxed lunches were provided on Capitol Hill by the National Grange to allow Fly-In participants to catch their breath and grab a quiet bite to eat during the noon hour between the nearly 80 individual Congressional office visits that took place that day.

The Fly-In 2007 participants from Pennsylvania hosted a luncheon for their state Congressional delegation and were joined by U.S. Representatives Charles Dent, Phil English, Tim Holden, Joseph Pitts, and Todd Platts, as well as staff members from various other U.S. Representatives and Sen. Arlen Specter's office.  All of the U.S. Representatives and staff members had an opportunity to address the Grangers. All spoke about the importance of agriculture in Pennsylvania, as well as in the nation, with special emphasis on the upcoming 2007 Farm Bill. 

After a long, but successful, day of Congressional meetings, a final farewell dinner was hosted back at the National Grange headquarters by National Master Bill Steel and the members of the National Grange Board of Directors. Everyone recounted their meetings, sharing success stories of shaking hands with Senators and ill prepared staff members. Feelings of achievement and of optimism filled the room.

Kansas State Grange Master Roger Bostwick, who met with Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Rep. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), noted: "Congressman Moran echoes the Grange's concerns about the rural availability of quality electronic information, and is also looking into funding of alternative fuels, solar, wind, and hydro, as well as bio-fuels. I feel that our meetings were very productive."

Jeff Swainston, Master of the Michigan State Grange, talked about his efforts to educate his Congressional delegation on the purpose of the Grange, noting: "In addition to discussing the specific issues affecting our members, since some of our Congressmen are new, I explained that the National Grange is a group of diversified, educated, and politically active ag consumers in Rural America."

National Master William Steel told the tired, but excited, state and local Grange leaders that, "Our Annual Legislative Fly-In is a demonstration of grassroots advocacy.  We are proud to be able to give our members a unique, behind the scenes, adventure into politics." He urged each of the participants to share the information and experiences they had gathered in Washington, DC at Fly-In 2007 including the National Grange's 2007 Blueprint for Rural America with their Pomona and Subordinate Granges.