Any student of world history can tell you that the concept of democracy is handed down to us by the culture and governance of ancient Greece. The word democracy is derived from two Greek words: “demos,” or people; and “kratos,” or rule.

With the 2020 general election approaching, a review of employees’ rights and employers’ obligations to employees is in order.

Depending on your source, definitions of the word tariff vary, but virtually all of them include the word “tax” or “duty.” Most etymologists say the word comes from the Italian tariffa, or “list of prices, book of rates,” derived in turn from the Arabic ta’rif, meaning “making known” or “to define.” For convenience sake we will go with Wikipedia’s simple definition: “A tariff is a tax on imports or exports between sovereign states.”

My first full year as the new president and CEO of the Forging Industry Association (FIA) was eventful and exciting!

Ongoing trade discussions between the U.S. and China were high in the news cycle in March. The economic relationship between China and the U.S., which has expanded enormously during the last few decades, has been one filled with tensions, allegations of currency manipulation, outright theft of intellectual property (IP) and other speed bumps in the highway of trade between the two countries.

The Forging Industry Association (FIA) announced a new partnership with Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas (MCRT), a bipartisan government-affairs consultancy. MCRT helps its clients develop winning strategies by educating and building relationships with key policymakers in Congress, the White House, government agencies and regulatory bodies. As FIA’s new lobby firm, they will work with the association to facilitate and advance its advocacy efforts in Washington, D.C. They will also help coordinate FIA Lobby Day, an annual event that offers FIA members an opportunity to meet with key members of the U.S. House and Senate.

Remember how we said that Congress needed to get moving on comprehensive tax reform if there was any realistic chance for passage this year? And remember we said that there were a lot of distractions? Boy, we didn’t know the half of it!

Congress is back in Washington after the August recess with a heavy agenda for the remainder of the year, including increasing the national debt limit, funding the government for Fiscal Year 2018 and providing disaster relief for the victims of Hurricane Harvey.

Last May the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began a rollback of Net Neutrality rules, a set of Obama administration regulations that heavily regulated Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to provide equal Internet access to all available Internet sites.