Colling Swift & Hynes offers a comprehensive, integrated government relations, strategic planning and issue advocacy portfolio. Our service package comprises several elements that build on and complement each other so our clients can position themselves today for success tomorrow.
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Strategic Planning
Our firm approaches each client individually, designing a strategy that fits the client's unique profile, whether it is building or expanding a Washington presence, being a leader in the public policy process, or managing a challenging relationship.
Developing a thorough understanding of your business is the first step in working closely with you to understand your objectives. We look for hidden political resources and execute a lobbying strategy accordingly. Throughout the process we draw on our team's background, expertise and long-time, bipartisan political involvement to address your needs.
Working with you, we will help analyze legislative or regulatory proposals that may impact your business objectives. Not only does this early warning system help recognize and deflect potential threats, it allows you to make use of strategic opportunities in advance to benefit your bottom line. We will help you assess the political parameters of your options for addressing policy developments and help you set an informed, strategic course of action.
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Message Development
Once we have narrowed the scope of your key issues, we begin to establish your profile with key Congressional committees, the Administration, leadership and staff in targeted areas. We build a team of "champions" in Washington: Members who understand your issues and can support your goals in legislative committees, on the House and Senate floor and within the current Administration. We are successful because we mesh solutions to public policy problems with our clients' short and long term business objectives. We seek to understand what is likely to happen tomorrow and work today to manage those events to our client's advantage.
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Coalition Management
The government professionals of our firm will use many different tools and resources to effectively manage your coalition. Our intimate knowledge of the legislative and regulatory processes allows all members of the firm to work collaboratively on your behalf. We are able to provide a full range of services that include: submitting asset reports, providing logistical support and materials for coalition meetings, public relations and media activities, and grassroots campaigns.
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Corporate Positioning
Armed with the knowledge of what is politically achievable, we can help you set and prioritize your legislative goals. We will work closely with you to position your organization strategically, developing lines of argument to assert your objectives effectively and successfully. The public decision making process should be a two way street; not every proposed change in policy should require you to alter your operations or business strategies. It should also work the other way so you can assert your own interests in suggesting changes to existing policies or new proposals. We will provide outreach to the media and interest groups on your behalf, and prepare op-ed pieces, speeches, position papers, briefing books and testimony when they are needed to carry out the agreed strategy.
While our reputation is solid and our bipartisan political network is extensive and real, from time to time we will call on your own personnel to participate in a particularly critical meeting we have scheduled with a member of Congress, Administration official, regulator or their staffs. We will provide full preparation for such meetings, including talking points on the message and the issues to be discussed and informational materials we will want to leave behind. We will draft letters that might be necessary in opposition to or in favor of specific legislation. We will organize tours of your facilities for Members of Congress and their staff when that might be helpful in developing their understanding of your business and how the issues relate to it.
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Lobbying
Our firm will be your active on-site presence on Capitol Hill and throughout Washington, D.C. We will be on the front lines to deliver your message and encourage decision makers to act on your behalf. Recognizing that you can only plan your business strategies for the long term if you know about relevant political and regulatory developments in advance, we will monitor the progression of your issues and flag new ones that might affect you. Our ability to cover pertinent committee hearings and mark-ups and report on the progress and disposition of key issues is crucial to each client. Any amendments and new language of a written bill will be thoroughly researched and reported to you. Our professionals meet with congressional and committee staff regularly to stay abreast of client issues.
We will help you better understand the reasons and implications of actions that otherwise might not make sense outside the insular world of Washington politics. Our lobbying provides constant support for your business objectives.
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Federal Marketing
Our Federal Marketing Practice specializes in strategic government marketing and procurement planning. We help clients create business opportunities by matching client talents with existing government requirements to create innovative solutions to long-standing management and business challenges. Through strategic business development planning, contract development, performance-based contracting, proposal writing, and contract management; our professionals can put you in focus for success in the federal marketplace.
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Ethics
The professionals at Colling Swift & Hynes meet and exceed all federal and state requirements for ethical standards and reporting, including the “Honest Leadership and Open Government Act” To help preserve and advance public trust and confidence in our democratic institutions and the public policy advocacy process, professional lobbyists have a moral obligation to act in the highest ethical manner. We are committed to upholding the most stringent of ethical practices followed by the code of ethics established by the American League of Lobbyist (ALL).
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Appropriations
We have the expertise and experience to help clients effectively obtain government funding through the appropriations process for their ideas, programs or products. To obtain congressionally directed funding today, every requesting organization must go through a very complex, competitive and transparent process to compete for a predetermined amount of available federal funds. Simple mistakes, such as drafting errors or missing key deadlines, can doom a project’s eligibility. Our firm carefully guides clients through the detailed process, starting by becoming well-versed in a client’s priorities. We meet with client experts to obtain a deeper understanding of the proposed project’s specifics, costs and needs. Next, we work closely with each client to develop a meaningful proposal to present to key policymakers involved in the decision making process which demonstrates how the project intersects with Congressional and federal agency interests and priorities. Our firm works in coordination with its clients throughout the entire effort to ensure timely funding release and to help make certain the objectives of our clients are achieved. We are well regarded and respected by members of Congress on both sides of the aisle based on the consistent quality of our appropriations work and the ethical manner in which we operate. In the world of appropriations and congressionally directed funding, it doesn’t matter who you know if you don’t follow the right steps in the process.
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