Understanding that outreach in Washington requires strengthening relationships as well as creating them, the DGA PAC Leadership Council recently hosted a lunch with longtime ally Congressman David Dreier (R-CA). One of the Guild’s most important champions on Capitol Hill, Dreier’s early authorship of our runaway production incentive legislation in 2001 — and his commitment throughout the four-year effort — was critical to the inclusion of our incentive provision in the The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (JOBS ACT). Said President Michael Apted at start of the July 6 meeting, “David Dreier was one of our very first and most steadfast supporters; we could not have asked for more than he did to help us on runaway production.”

Congressman Dreier, with a reputation for taking a bipartisan approach to many debates, “votes his principles and reaches across the aisle on issues he feels strongly about,” said PAC Leadership Council Co-Chair Taylor Hackford. This, coupled with his strong support of free trade, led him to become the GOP House member that the DGA, along with Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA), approached when preparing to introduce our first runaway production bill. (Both Dreier and Berman were recipients of DGA Honors in New York last year for their unwavering support of our runaway efforts.)

As Chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, Dreier influences legislation of interest to all members of Congress. He plays a leading role on free trade issues and supports efforts to open foreign markets to American goods and services, including film and television products. So he firmly believed in passing a production tax incentive that would, in essence, level the international playing field.

“People should be able to make motion pictures anyplace they want,” the Congressman said. “But when we see other countries provide a magnet, we should be able to compete and provide the same kind of magnet. We need to look at ourselves and our policies that create a disincentive for us to succeed — and change them.”

During 2004, as tax legislation moved through the Ways and Means Committee, Congressman Dreier consistently spoke out in support of our runaway legislation. And during the final days of the House/Senate Conference Committee on the American Jobs Creation Act, he made this support known during key sessions where the discussion over which amendments to include took place.

“I met with [Speaker Hastert] on the JOBS ACT quite a bit at that time and we would regularly talk about our commitment to ensuring that we would make this happen,” the Congressman recalled. “We had a lot of opposition on this bill. There were a lot of people giving us a hard time but we ended up succeeding — and you all did provide the impetus for us to do this, so I thank you very much for that.”

But now that legislation has been passed, Hackford noted, the Guild’s work on runaway is far from complete. DGA’s lobbyists have already met with the staff of the Joint Tax Committee and the Department of Treasury, he said, to insure that the interpretations and clarifications we want to make to our provision – those that will be most useful for producers – are implemented. Congressman Dreier pledged to do what he could to help hasten the issuance of our Treasury regulations.

Looking beyond runaway, Dreier’s leadership role in the House makes him a critical voice on another set of issues of great concern to DGA members: piracy and the protection of intellectual property rights. When asked about these, Dreier noted that he will be traveling to Asia with Speaker Hastert this summer. “I can assure you that in every single one of our meetings, this issue [of piracy] will be brought forward,” he said. “It is a question of people being compensated for what it is they have done; that’s what it comes down to as far as I’m concerned.”

Summing up where we go from here, the Congressman drew an analogy between the current piracy battle and the runaway production victory. “The trade related issue is intellectual property,” he said. “Just as we’ve been able to do on runaway, I want to do everything I can to facilitate bringing about some kind of agreement on how we protect intellectual property rights and at the same time remain technologically competitive.”