The United States Chamber of Commerce (USCC) is the world's largest not-for-profit business federation, representing
- 3,000,000 businesses (via its Federation of local chambers and association members. Actual direct membership is several tens of thousands.)
- 2,800 state and local chambers
- 830 business associations
The Chamber is staffed with policy specialists, lobbyists and lawyers. It is known for spending more money than any other lobbying organization on a yearly basis.[1]
In the 2008 Election cycle, aggressive ads paid for by the USCC attacked a number of Democratic Congressional candidates (such as Minnesota's DFL Senate candidate Al Franken).
Mission statement
"To advance human progress through an economic, political and social system based on individual freedom, incentive, initiative, opportunity, and responsibility."
Board of directors
History
The idea of a national institution to represent the unified interests of U.S. business first took shape when President William Howard Taft, in a message to Congress on December 7, 1911, addressed the need for a "central organization in touch with associations and chambers of commerce throughout the country and able to keep purely American interests in a closer touch with different phases of commercial affairs."
Four months later, on April 12, 1912, a group of 700 delegates from various commercial and trade organizations came together to create a unified body of business interest that would later become the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
More than 90 years later, the Chamber has grown to represent more than 3 million businesses, nearly 3,000 state and local chambers, 830 associations, and over 90 American Chambers of Commerce abroad.
History of the USCC Building
In 1841, friends of Daniel Webster purchased a three-and-a-half story home on the ground now occupied by the U.S. Chamber building. Webster's home was the site of a number of historic events, including final negotiations with Great Britain over Maine's boundaries that resulted in the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842.
In 1849, Webster sold his house to William Wilson Corcoran, whose art collection today remains close by. Several other dignitaries lived in Webster's former home over the years before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ultimately purchased the land. It broke ground in 1922, having selected Cass Gilbert, designer of the United States Supreme Court building and the Treasury Annex in Washington, D.C., to design a building to reflect the organization's mission. The U.S. Chamber building was completed three years later at a cost of $3 million.
On the issues
The Chamber is:
Affiliate organizations
See also
References
External links
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