PARTICIPANTS
Randy Johnson
We first met Randy at an event which we came to think of as “the Love Fest”, a remarkable Judiciary Committee hearing on immigration reform in early September, 2001, where Randy‘s boss at the Chamber of Commerce was testifying, as was his counterpart at the AFL-CIO. These leaders of two of Washington‘s most powerful lobbies were in agreement about almost everything that day-- that was our introduction to Randy, and to the Business point of view on immigration reform.
Randy is Senior Vice President for Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce-- he‘s a Business Lobbyist. In the popular imagination of what happens in Washington it‘s fair to say that the Business Lobbyist occupies a special space, and Randy does reflect that image in the sense that he‘s a hard-nosed negotiator, quick witted, and charming. We even filmed a few meetings of him and his colleagues in a book-lined, wood paneled conference room that looks like a movie set-- but once he starts explaining why Business needs immigration reform, and what particular policies they support, once again the reality of DC is so much more nuanced and fascinating than we imagine.
Randy joined the Chamber in 1997. Before that he was the Republican labor counsel and coordinator for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce. He graduated from Denison University and the University of Maryland School of Law and received his Master of Laws in labor relations from the Georgetown University Law Center. Randy also is on the board of directors of the National Immigration Forum and the Lutheran Immigration Refugee Services agency.
