Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1537616
14 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2025 A M E R I CA N M A D E A DVO CACY A Growing Presence in Washington in Turbulent Times by Shane W hiteside, Summit Interc onne ct Last month, PCBAA held its fourth annual meeting in Wash- ington, D.C. It was our largest gathering to date and included speakers from the House and Senate, the Department of Com- merce, and OEMs Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Northrop Grum- man. We also spent a day on Capitol Hill educating lawmak- ers and their staff about the importance of a secure domes- tic microelectronics supply chain. As I looked around the room, I was struck by the growing depth and breadth of our organization. In less than four years, PCBAA has grown from five PCB man- ufacturers to nearly 75 mem- bers in 34 states, representing raw and refined materials, board shops, assemblers, tooling, train- ing, testing, and most recently, an OEM. PCBAA staff spend a lot of time in Washington. When it comes to advocacy, there is no substitute for being face to face with the men and women who actually make policy and write legislation. We were fortunate to hear directly from regulators, purchasers, elected officials, and the current administration. Leg- islators were clear that the cur- rent administration will continue to use Executive Orders to take direct action on priority topics. We were advised to work with other like-minded trade groups and the uniformed services' associations to get our mes-