In May each year, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) holds its annual Lobby Day event in Washington, DC. FLOW has been participating in this annual event for years, and this year FLOW had five members travel to the east coast to lobby and meet with our Washington State congressional representatives. We met with Senator Maria Cantwell, Senator Patty Murray, Representative Adam Smith, and staff members from the offices of Representatives Pramila Jayapal, Suzan DelBene, and Dave Reichert.
We even had an opportunity to meet with the staffer for Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
We discussed issues of great importance to the Asian and Pacific Islander community, including funding for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program, funding for the
Legal Services Corporation (LSC), support for the Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2018, sponsorship for the Chinese American Veterans of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act, protection and promotion of Family Immigration and DREAMers, as well as support for Federal Judicial and Executive Nominations including John B. Nalbandian, nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and Jill A. Otake, nominee to the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii.
The FLOW contingency included Mimi Castillo, Eric de los Santos, Elaine Pascua, Jennifer Cruz, and Ailene Limric. FLOW combined efforts with members from the Asian Bar Association (ABAW), Dainen Penta, Lynn Hashimoto, and Joe Lee.
NAPABA reported that Lobby Day 2018 was one of the most successful events ever, with over 120 registrants and 90- 100 meetings scheduled with members of Congress. FLOW looks forward to supporting future Lobby Day events and hopes to have an even larger number of FLOW members join us to lobby on the Hill in coming years.
