The Coalition of Franchisee Association held their Capital Hill Forum in Washington DC, July 15th – 17th attracting franchisee leaders from the Meineke, Hardees, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Super Cuts, Buffalo Wild Wings, Subway and Dunkin’ Donuts franchise systems. Rob Branca and I attended the Forum, representing Dunkin’ Donuts Franchise Owners.
Watch the slide show below!
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There was a star studded and information packed agenda, we started Wednesday night when Congressman John Campbell (R) from California’s 48th Congressional District. John lives in Irvine, CA. joined us for dinner. John has a reputation as a dedicated fiscal conservative, he is an advocate for sensible public policy, and lower taxes for business owners. As a member of the House Commitee on Financial Sevices, he has taken an active part in addressing the country’s top economic issues, including reducing credit card interchange fees, banking reform, and insurance regulation. He spent a majority of his professional career as a taxation specialist representing several automobile franchisees, in Southern California.
Next US Senator Scott Brown from Massachusetts joined us at a CFA PAC Lunchon where we had the opportunity to sit and eat with the Senator and discuss small business and franchisee issues. Later that day Senator Brown voted to pass the Financial Services bill which included the Durbin Amendment to reduce Debit Transaction swipe fees.
Some of the other speakers were:
George Will, Washington Post Columnist
Sam Donaldson, Retired ABC Correspondent
Mike Bober , Coalitions Director for the National Republican Congressional Committee
Katie Hays Strong, Executive Director of the US Chamber of Commerce Public Affairs Division
Rick Berman, President of Berman and Company
Douglas Kantor, of Stephen Johnson LLP
David Kreutzer, Ph.D. Research fellow in Energy and Climate Change
Representative Steve Kagen (D-WI) 8th District of Wisconsin
Representative John Boehner (R-OH)8th District of Ohio
Hudson Riehle, VP Research, National Restaurant Association
James Hammersley, Office of Policy and Strategic Planning at the US Small Business Administration
Robert Skelton, CAE Chief Administrative Officer for the ASAE