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40 The PCB Magazine • December 2015 Another key objective for IPC GRC is to or- ganize site visits from congressman and their aides to IPC member companies' facilities. Dubbed "Meet the Policymakers," the project has completed more than 30 site visits since its inception in 2014 with several more scheduled by the end of the year. This is an opportunity to help IPC member companies' issues stick in their congressman's mind which improves our chances of success in Washington (Figure 8). In addition, a Political Action Committee was formed in 2014 that will help promote the candidates and initiatives that are important to North American fabricators and IPC member companies [1] . Even with ITAR reform it is important to keep our North American fabrication base healthy through foresighted and science-based regulation and program awards based on merit and capability rather than solely on price. After many years of market erosion, budget challeng- es in Congress and the dreaded sequestration of 2011 and beyond, the U.S. military is recogniz- ing that its technology supply base is struggling to keep investing in next generation equipment and technologies. In order to get their arms around the problem, NAVSEA Crane (part of Department of the Navy–Naval Surface Warfare Center) who is the DoD's executive agent for PCB technology, has commissioned the Depart- ment of Commerce to undertake a study to pro- file the health of the U.S. PCB industry. This exhaustive study will profile the entire domestic manufacturing base and will be spear- headed by Brad Botwin and Mark Crawford from the Office of Technology Evaluation, and is slated to be completed by September 2016. When asked how they intended to collect key information from private companies, Craw- ford replied humorlessly, "the Department of Figure 8: current Speaker of the house paul ryan addressing creation technologies staff in their Wisconsin factory in 2015. puTTing iT All TogeTher IS IPC THE PAST OR THE FUTURE OF OUR INDUSTRY?