Incredible.

Manufacturers descend upon Washington for 72 hours and — bam! — the Class Action Fairness Act passed the House of Representatives, following the Senate’s passage last week. How’s that for results?

Truth is, this bill has been around since the 105th Congress. We are now in the 109th, each Congress is of two years’ duration. You do the math. (And we think the Chinese are slow to act on the yuan….) It’s why we say it’s like the game of rugby here — the victory goes to the ones who hang in there and push and push and never let up. Our hats are off to all the NAM members, manufacturers large and small, who weighed in and provided the final push across the goal line. We expect it’ll be signed by the President ASAP.

Here’s a link to the press release we put out on this historic event and here’s a copy of the message that John Engler just sent to all NAM members. Don’t forget to say “thanks” or “thanks for nothin’”, to your representatives and Senators as the case may be. And don’t forget to let your employees know how folks voted on this issue which costs them money every day.

Reminds us of that old hymn, “Life is Like a Mountain Railroad” and it’s great refrain: “Keep your hand upon the throttle and your eye upon the rail.”

– The Coalition Forum had a good turnout, and heard John Engler and Asst Secy for Manufacturing Al Frink and then Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) lit the room on fire. He’s great, left everybody pretty pumped up. He does this great spiel on taxes, walks you through an ordinary person’s typical day and all the taxes they incur, from the license on your car, to the various state and local income tax, the marriage tax and ending unceremoniously with the death tax. A good reminder to all of us.

– The reception on Capitol Hill last night drew hundreds of NAM members and over a hundred Members of Congress. A very big room was very crowded, buzzing with the sound of manufacturers making their presence known and their voices heard. Today, there are hundreds of visits with Members of Congress and manufacturers talking about reducing the cost of doing business in the US and maintaining a level playing field. Click here to see a copy of the ad we ran in Roll Call and The Hill, the two Capitol Hill newspapers, listing our award winners, any Member of Congress regardless of party who votes with us 70% of the time or more on NAM-member-determined issues of importance.

– The best idea to come out of yesterday was to level the playing field by exporting more lawyers to China.

– Another good day for manufacturing. Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum kicked it off with a breakfast speech, hit all the right issues. Spent a fair amount of time on Social Security, saying, among other things that European countries, facing the same demographic changes as us, have gone to personal accounts. We should do the same. “Trust in the miracle of compound interest and the strength of the American economy”, he said. He said that the Democrats’ position, i.e., “There’s no problem and we don’t need a solution” is untenable. The alternative is also unappealing: cut benefits or raise taxes.

In response to a question about new energy sources, he made the point that all environmentalists should support energy production in the US, since we’ll produce it cleaner than anwyhere else in the world. Interesting point. Here’s a transcript of his remarks and the Q & A.

– The President’s Council continues its meeting. This is a really great bunch of our small and medium manufacturers, some of the best manufacturers in the world. One in particular has raised the issue of Chinese and European counterfeiting. Doing a Google search of her product, the first name to pop up was the Chinese counterfeit. She’s already working with the NAM international department to get this information to the Department of Commerce and the US Trade Representative’s Office for action. If you have any counterfeiting issues, let us know and we’ll get to work.

More to follow…..

A busy day and a good kick-off for the 72 Hours today. Highlights were a great President’s Council meeting, a supercharged group of our most active small and medium members. We also got a bunch of our regional fly-ins kicked off as well.

Tonight was a reception and dinner, the latter featuring US News contributor and author Michael Barone, a downright brilliant political thinker and about the only guy to consistently call it right on Election Night, for Fox News (where else…?). He talked about the change to a decentralized, networking society among both the electorate and the media. He said with the election of 2004, the “old command and control media” lost its hold and influence on the electorate. (To wit: Swift Boat Veterans and Dan Rather) In its place, the emergence of….

[Drum roll here]

The blogosphere!

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for being part of the revolution. It was only after he finished his speech that he discovered that the NAM has a blog of its own.

Great to be part of the cutting edge, no?

More reports as warranted. Don’t forget to weigh in if you haven’t already done so. See “Don’t Just Sit There!”, below to see how you can e-join us this week.

What are you doing sitting there, reading the blog when your fellow manufacturers are descending in droves on Washington? What’s wrong, is the dog sled in the shop? Not to worry, you can still participate, and we need you in the fray.

Go to this link and just enter your zip code and send a message to your Members of Congress to be in e-solidarity with your brothers and sisters who are here in Washington telling the story of manufacturing this week. Scores have already done it today — join the crowd. You can be our “air support” — manufacturing needs you!

In an early Valentine to the GOP, the Democratic National Committee has elected former Presidential candidate Howard Dean as its party Chairman. He has hit the ground running and has already picked some targeted states for his early focus. Click here for a sneak peak at the new Chairman and listen as he thoughtfully ticks off a list of states for his upcoming focus.

And here’s a tongue-in-cheek “Breaking News” piece sent to me from a friend in Dr. Dean’s party that has been making the rounds over there. It shows that, after all, Dean is a uniter and not a divider.

– Having conquered the world then known to him, the young Alexander the Great is said to have gone to ask the great teacher Diogenes what he could do for him. “Only stand out of my light”, said Diogenes. Here’s a take on that story from our recent Just in Time newsletter, with application to manufacturers’ message to Congress next week.

– Want more business? You know we just keep asking and asking. There are two more of our wildly popular webinars coming up: one assessing “The Current Climate of Middle Market Mergers and Acquisitions” on February 17 and one on “Exporting to Australia” on February 23. G’day mate!

– This week, our Manufacturing Institute, in conjunction with Monster.com and the American Association of Community Colleges and the College Board, launched “Dream It, Do It“, a nationwide grassroots campaign aimed at attracting young adults into manufacturing jobs and expanding education and training opportunities to meet a growing shortage of skilled employees.

– And, last but not least, manufacturers in the mood for love? You betcha! As we bear down on Valentine’s Day, don’t forget the contribution that manufacturers are making to romance. Click on this link for a story by the NAM’s Marissa Gandelman for all the things we bring to the table — at least the stuff we can print on a family blog: the candles, the perfume, the box of chocolates, the wine, the conversation hearts, you name it. This Valentine’s Day, don’t forget to tell your favorite manufacturer that you love them. They will love you back.

If you care — we mean really care — about manufacturing, you need to be here in Washington for our biennial “72 Hours” event next Tuesday through Thursday. It is way cool, with hordes of manufacturers making the rounds on Capitol Hill. It’s all the more timely this year, since the class action bill will move to the House next week, and may pass on a rocket docket. We can help provide the final push.

For details on the 72 Hours and on all the state fly-ins,(Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, etc.) follow this link.

While the boss was out urging the Senate to pass class action reform at the Press Club(see below), the Senate was getting about the business of, well, passing class action reform. This afternoon, by a squeaker margin of 72-26, the Senate passed S.5, the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005.

It is an object lesson in the ways of Washington that it took some two years to approve a bill that ultimately passed by a 46-vote margin. It shows how the will of the minority can gum up the will of the (vast) majority. It also shows that — as in rugby — victory goes to the ones who stay in the game and never stop pushing.

Here’s a copy of John Engler’s message to NAM members after the vote. Let’s hope we can get this to the President’s desk ASAP.

And here’s a list of the sub-minority of 26 Senators who voted against the bill. Yup, John Kerry’s on there.

Big news day around the NAM today. The boss, John Engler, wowed ‘em all at the National Press Club. He laid out the NAM agenda and then fielded a ton of questions, seemingly all on trade save for one about the Detroit Tigers and the Washington Nationals.

For you video-friendly folks, here’s the video link. For those of you who are video averse and like to crawl up with a good transcript, here it is. There’s some great stuff in here on reigning in the cost of doing business in the US, gaining a level international playing field, securing a ready workforce for the 21st century and focusing on innovation, investment and productivity.

Enjoy!