On Friday, Dec. 1st, the AZBITC Executive Board met with Kendra Burton, the District Director for Congresswoman Krysten Sinema's constituency. The subject of the meeting was the AZBITC's goals and also a bit of history on the Federal contracting landscape in Arizona. Our focus was largely on the question of how Arizona's economy is not well served when billions of Federal dollars pass THROUGH Arizona on their way back to companies in Virginia, DC and several others. Ultimately, our efforts are being made to promote Arizona jobs and continue to expand and build on Arizona's rapidly increasing tech sector.

Ms. Burton was very helpful in establishing both an interest in our efforts on behalf of Congresswoman Sinema, and empathy for our hard work, given that as a Federal office they often find themselves unable to procure services locally that must be procured through Washington. It was clear from our conversation that there may be quite a lot of common ground between our coalition and their office. Ms. Burton also indicated that once we have some hard data in front of them, that the Congresswoman would be have more help to offer.

Congresswoman Sinema is currently running for the United States Senate in an effort to take the seat that will be vacated by Jeff Flake in 2018. She has been a US Congresswoman since 2014, and takes pride in supporting the concerns of veterans and small businesses in Arizona. We believe this connection is a very important one, given Congresswoman Sinema's stated focuses and her visibility, which makes her a critical advocate for our work in Congress.

Stay tuned, as the AZBITC Executive Board has more meetings scheduled with more state and Federal representatives, with an eye towards raising as much awareness as possible on Capitol Hill in support of our goals!