Last week CBA’s president and CEO, Rod Brown, was joined by Jeff Ball, CBA chairman, and president and CEO of Friendly Hills Bank and Paul Simmons, chairman, president and CEO of First Federal Savings and Loan Association of San Rafael at the ABA’s spring government relations summit. Tom Shaffer, president of 1867 Western Financial Corporation was also in D.C. to attend an ABA board of directors meeting held just prior to the start of the summit. The event drew more than 1,100 bankers, the most ever, from across the country to Washington, D.C., to advocate on Capitol Hill and also have an opportunity to listen to a several noteworthy featured general session speakers. Speakers included House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), chair of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, Senate Banking Committee member Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), political trend-watcher Charlie Cook and Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan. The California bankers also conducted many successful Capitol Hill visits to advocate on issues of concern to California’s banking community. Meetings were conducted with California Reps. Kevin McCarthy, who is also the House Majority Whip, Ed Royce and Maxine Waters, both members of the House Financial Services Committee, and T.C. Ostrander a legislative aide to Sen. Dianne Feinstein to discuss GSE reform, data security, Farm Credit System tax reform, the tax-exempt status of credit unions and their efforts to increase their business lending authority, as well as the ever-growing regulatory burden on California banks.