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September 2007
JA Walker and Tim Jackson of Jackson Construction Company received awards at the MED Week Awards Luncheon on Friday Sept 21.  Tim Jackson was awarded Minority Advocate of the Year. JA Walker will receive Minority Business of the Year.  Congrats to both of them!

Elegant Catering will receive the Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce's Clara Brown Award for Outstanding Service in Catering.

A Message from Julie Cunningham, COMTO National President
On Wednesday, October 17, 2007, I met with U.S. Representative John Olver, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Transportation Appropriations. The meeting also included Judith Burrell, Principal of Burrell Project Consult LLC, Kate Hallahan, Majority Clerk of the Subcommittee, and Bob Letteney, legislative director for Mr. Olver House office. Mr. Olver represents the western part of Massachusetts ( Amherst, Holyoke, Worcester, etc).

The discussion focused on three topics (1) an introduction to COMTO; (2) the TRB study on diversity reporting in the transportation industry; and (3) the Walberg (MI) amendment in the House-passed transportation appropriations bill, which prohibits any federal transportation funding be spent for programs focused on women or minorities Chairman Olver indicated he had heard from several groups regarding their concern about the broad language in the Walberg amendment. Judith and I voiced our concern about its unwieldy interpretations regarding minority contracting and other programs in the department of transportation, for which the language would have a chilling effect on funding, i.e. civil rights, DBE and ADA. Chairman Olver indicated it was good to be introduced to COMTO, and he agreed with our position on the Walberg amendment. He was also grateful for COMTO's offer to be a resource in the future. As the Chairman stated, "you never know when I will need to ask and you will be able to answer."

Both Kate and Bob indicated that they would ask to "recede" or delete the Walberg amendment during the House and Senate conference on the transportation appropriations bill. It still had not begun conference at the time we met. We also discussed the results of the TRB report and the inadequate compilation of date about minority groups in transportation roles across the country as well as the deficiencies in reporting the EEO data, as indicated by the report. We volunteered COMTO as a solution to help create a template that would make reporting easier for both transportation entities that have to submit as well as U.S. DOT staff that have to aggregate the data.

This conversation was the first in a series to position COMTO on Capitol Hill as a trusted and viable resource for diversity in federal transportation programs. We will continue to meet with House and Senate members to introduce COMTO and to seek an influential role in the upcoming transportation authorization legislation process, where sections on diversity in the industry will be addressed and, with COMTO's help, modified to advance our mission.

Julie Cunningham, President & Chief Executive Officer
Conference of Minority Transportation Officials

COMTO . . . Building the people who build America.