For the second consecutive year, APWA’s Government Affairs team scheduled a chock-full slate of activities in Washington DC during National Public Works Week in May, won US House and Senate approval of NPWW resolutions. Two dozen staff-supported meetings were held with lawmakers, their staff, plus US House and Senate committees; and another 20 informal drop-by engagements were held.
APWA’s Government Affairs Committee also convened for its annual spring meeting.
Once again, APWA Government Affairs held a breakfast briefing Wednesday morning, a reception to culminate 2025’s Top Ten Public Works Leaders and its Projects of the Year tributes, and Capitol Hill’s sweetest tradition–Donuts and Trucks.
The new wrinkle? Members of the APWA Board of Directors worked with GAC this year to amplify NPWW, public works, and the association.
APWA CEO Scott Grayson and APWA’s president, currently Vic Bianes, PE, typically join GAC when it visits DC. This time, Region I Director Rich Benevento, Region IV Director Larry Ingram, and Region V Director Mike Millette joined the group.
Half of the Top Ten Public Works Leaders of 2025 also joined the chorus of NPWW as they met with their lawmakers, attended the breakfast briefing on federal transportation priorities that featured GAC member panelists Kati Horner Gonzalez from Colorado, GAC Chair Jeff May from Iowa, and Adisa Aarons from Georgia, and the Federal Highway Administration’s Parker Edwards. CEO Grayson moderated.
When not meeting with policymakers, the APWA NPWW group met with top leaders from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, the Senate HELP Committee, FirstNet, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the House Homeland Security Committee, and the US Geological Survey.
During the reception honoring APWA’s Top Ten Public Works Leaders and Projects of the Year recipients, we bestowed upon US House Public Works and Infrastructure Caucus Co-Chairs Jeff Van Drew (R-New Jersey) and Dina Titus (D-Nevada) with Distinguished Service to Public Works awards.
By week’s end, APWA members, directors, and award recipients had engaged lawmakers and congressional staff representing more than 50 million Americans, helping ensure the public works perspective was part of discussions shaping federal infrastructure, transportation, water, emergency management, and workforce policy.
