Have some breakfast, catch up on policy.

• Author: Jacox, Paula
• Position: Government policy notes; Legislative Information Division breakfast meetings for National Defense Industrial Association members

Corporate members of the National Defense Industrial Association who need to stay on top of defense-related issues should not miss the breakfast meetings of the Legislative Information Division.

Meetings are held over a full breakfast at 8 a.m., every third week, usually on a Tuesday, when Congress is in session. The location: The Army and Navy Club, in downtown Washington, D.C.

Speakers include members of Congress, senior congressional staff, high-ranking officials from the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security and other federal agencies, as well as industry experts.

Information discussed at LID meetings is not for attribution or available to the media, which ensures an open and informative forum for issues of interest to NDIA members.

The division's primary objectives are providing NDIA members with access to key government and industry officials, monitoring defense and technology-related legislation and identifying national security issues of significant interest to NDIA members and leadership.

This year--the first session of the 108th Congress--attendance reached a record high average of 70 members per event. LID reached its highest level of participation in March, with 94 members in attendance.

The increase can be contributed to the quality and diversity of guest speakers and the topics they discussed. Subjects included Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, the Defense Authorization and Appropriations Acts, and the state of military equipment and readiness. Here is a brief summary of the year's proceedings:

January: U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, noted that with the Republican Party holding the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and controlling the White House, the outlook for legislation favoring the defense industry appeared good.

March: Dov Zakheim, undersecretary of defense and comptroller for the Department of Defense outlined the 2004 defense budget and discussed the war in Iraq and other current military operations.

April: U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., chairman of the House Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, spoke about the 2004 Defense Authorization Act. He also discussed national missile defense.

Also in April, Gen. John M. Keane, vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army, provided a detailed account of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also discussed the effectiveness of current military equipment and transportation...