[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 37 (Tuesday, March 20, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S2579]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SHRM VISIT TO CAPITAL

 Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. President, I rise today to welcome the 
members of the Society for Human Resource Management, SHRM, to 
Washington for their 18th Annual Employment Law and Legislative 
Conference. Today, close to 300 SHRM members will visit Capitol Hill to 
share their views on and experience with issues such as the Family and 
Medical Leave Act, health care, the Fair Labor Standards Act, pension 
reform, and Section 127 educational assistance.
  The Society for Human Resource Management, SHRM, is a strong voice 
for the human resource profession. SHRM represents its members on 
issues affecting the workplace, employment, employers, and employees. 
It also provides them with invaluable services such as government and 
media representation, education and information services, conferences 
and seminars, online services, and publications.
  SHRM was founded 52 years ago by a small group of ``personnel'' 
officers to help the nation work through its post WW II labor-
management challenges and improve the professionalism of the industry. 
Today, SHRM's membership includes over 155,000 human resource 
professionals in all fifty states and ranges from small one-person 
consulting firms to Fortune 500 companies. SHRM's members also 
represent a wide variety of industries, from the 25 percent who work in 
manufacturing to the 15 percent who work in the service sector. Other 
members work in the transportation, utilities, retail, finance, 
insurance, health, real estate, construction, and technology 
industries.
  I want to commend the members of SHRM for taking time out of their 
demanding daily lives to come to Washington, D.C. to speak with their 
Senators and Representatives regarding the issues that affect their 
profession. As a legislator, I cannot stress enough the importance of 
legislative conferences through which members of associations like the 
Society for Human Resource Management come to our nation's capital to 
participate in the legislative process. Citizen participation is a 
crucial component of the legislative process because it allows 
legislators and their staff to hear their constituents explain their 
experiences as they live and work under our nation's laws. The 
knowledge that legislators gain through these conversations results in 
sounder legislation and, ultimately, a stronger democracy. Accordingly, 
I sincerely thank the members of SHRM for their commitment not only to 
their profession but to the political process.

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