Legislative Advocacy
A key component of ACEC/NC’s mission is to “promote the business interests of engineering companies by providing legislative advocacy”. We work on behalf our member organizations to support and promote issues that are of importance to them and the engineering industry, both on the state and federal level. Read more about our PAC’s below or click on the Key Issues link to the right to read more about our specific efforts.
Recognizing the need for a broad-based and strong political action effort for our member firms, the Board of Directors of ACEC/NC took a historic step in May 2017 and voted to increase our impact in legislative advocacy with the creation of a State PAC and an Independent Expenditure Account.
The purpose of our State Political Action Committee is to support candidates for North Carolina State Office that share the goals/ideals of enhancing the business of engineering. ACEC NC PAC is a State-level PAC that can accept individual contributions from any employee of a member firm and operates as part of ACEC/NC. Governed by a 5-person Board of Trustees, the PAC works to directly support candidates for state office through campaign contributions to those who support legislation favorable to the engineering industry.
ECNC (Engineering Companies for North Carolina)
ECNC is an Independent Expenditure Account whose purpose is to strengthen the effectiveness of our advocacy program and enhance the social welfare of the citizens of North Carolina. ECNC is an autonomous organization governed by a 5-person Board of Governors. It operates independently and distinctly separate from ACEC/NC. ECNC can accept both individual and firm contributions from anyone without limit and advocates for ballot issues and referendums that benefit the engineering industry and its firms. An independent expenditure allows quick response to issues and strong cooperation with our industry-related partners.
ACEC’s Political Action Committee—ACEC/PAC– is the engineering industry’s primary tools for political engagement at the National level. Supported by engineering professionals from across the country who work for member firms, the sole purpose of ACEC/PAC is to elect candidates to the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate who support policies and legislation favorable to the engineering industry.
ACEC/PAC is overseen by a committee of PAC Champions made of engineering firm executives from all the ACEC member organization s and is regulated by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). ACEC/PAC is currently the largest federal PAC in the design industry, having grown more than 500% in 10 years. It supports candidates on a bipartisan basis and in the last election cycle, ACEC/PAC’s winning percentage was 94%.