Baumgartner meets with defense contractors, real estate agents in Spokane stop

May 9-In the midst of a 12-county tour in which Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, made a mix of public appearances and private meetings with constituent groups, the congressman met Wednesday with two very different industry groups that each want different things from D.C.

In a Bank of America tower conference room overlooking the downtown bus plaza, leaders of various defense manufacturers, including makers of missile platforms and electronic components in jets, met with Baumgartner during a meeting hosted by the Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition.

Only a mile or so away, the congressman met just hours before with representatives of the Spokane Realtors, who presented Baumgartner with a slate of bills, many of which are in limbo in one House committee or another.

In both cases, regional industry leaders urged the congressman to prioritize their interests in the other Washington, whether by making it easier to build homes, or by making it easier for defense manufacturers to compete in overseas markets. In both cases, the groups' federal asks were interspersed with complaints to a sympathetic audience about unfavorable policies pushed by Democrats in local or state governments.

More homes

Shortly after handing Baumgartner a water bottle, Tom Hormel, a Realtor and broker with RE/MAX of Spokane, also passed him a stack of papers, including a report on the housing market in Baumgartner's 5th Congressional District and a slate of bills Hormel believed would boost homebuilding that were stuck in House committees.

Whether in City Hall, Olympia, or D.C., Hormel argued, politicians call housing a top priority while moving at a snail's pace on additional reforms that could make a difference. Among others, Hormel pointed to the federal Housing for the 21st Century Act, which passed the House, and the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act, which was passed by the Senate.

Components of both bills were combined by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., into the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act in March, offering a sweeping, bipartisan slate of reforms to housing regulations that remains deadlocked in House committees due to opposition from some House Republicans despite President Donald Trump's initial - though possibly wavering - support. Among its many provisions, one of the most controversial would restrict large institutional investors from purchasing new single-family homes if they already own at least 350.

Asked by Baumgartner which housing bill was the "favorite of all your children," Hormel pointed to the More Homes on the Market Act, a bipartisan proposal to lift the capital gains tax exclusion on home sales from $500,000 to $1 million, meaning sellers would only pay the tax on sales in excess of $1 million.

Hormel argued that many potential home sellers are sitting on their houses because the capital gains tax would be too onerous. If those homeowners die and their children inherit the home, they won't have to pay most of those taxes, he added.

"That would seem to be low-hanging fruit," Baumgartner said. "Who would be opposed to it?"

Hormel noted that some worry about losing out on the potential tax revenue, but argued that the potential revenue was an illusion - if the homes aren't selling, the taxes aren't realized.

Baumgartner probed the Realtors on their interest or concerns about restricting private equity's purchasing of single-family homes, but Hormel seemed largely uninterested one way or the other.

"We pulled all the homes sold to business entities, and there wasn't a single one on the equity list," he said. "Everything matters in the end, but that's not the answer - building more supply is."

Much of the rest of the meeting consisted of complaints about policies that Baumgartner had no control over, whether the state's policies limiting the growth of city boundaries or Spokane's slow -rolling development in the West Plains due to infrastructure concerns. Hormel asked Baumgartner if Congress could make headway on investing in U.S. Highway 195, the strained connection linking that region to the rest of the city. But the congressman largely demurred, arguing the city should do more to reopen the Inland Empire Highway.

"Does (Mayor Lisa Brown) and the City Council, do they have any big idea stuff they're doing?" Baumgartner asked, rattling off his accomplishments while in the state Senate for comparison, like funding for the North Spokane Corridor.

Hormel, bemused, pointed to a law the council is considering that would mandate landlords provide cooling options by 2031, which he argued would be excessively expensive if even possible for some older homes. Council sponsors have argued that the law would save lives, noting that many who died during the deadly 2021 heat dome were renters in low-income housing, and have waved off concerns about implementation because the law provides flexibility in accomplishing the mandated cooling levels.

Hormel noted that he had been excited by a proposal to create preapproved plans for accessory dwelling units, or mother-in-law units, that home builders could select without having to go through the standard planning process. No progress had been made on that, he added.

City spokeswoman Erin Hut clarified Thursday that the city had initially been investigating a preapproved plan for a fourplex, not ADUs, and was still interested in creating preapproved designs. However, she acknowledged that progress had stalled while planning staff are focused on modernizing the existing building code and updating the city's comprehensive plan, a once-in-a-decade project.

A day after hearing real estate agents lobby for additional federal boosts to housing stock, Baumgartner noted in a text that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act had made permanent provisions of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, estimated to lead to 1 million additional homes being built over the next decade. The National Low Income Housing Coalition called these provisions "important," but argued the bill's overall impact on low-income households, particularly cuts to social welfare programs, "will continue to keep housing out of reach for those with the most urgent affordable housing needs."

More foreign weapons sales

Little more than an hour after Baumgartner left the Realtors, he landed at a roundtable hosted by the Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition, created 20 years ago because relatively few national defense dollars come to the Northwest as opposed to Texas, for instance, said Denise Ryser, president and CEO of the PNDC.

Seated around the table were people such as Mark Chamberlain, CEO of Snoqualmie-based LKD Aerospace, Scott Tate, president of Spokane Valley-based electronics manufacturer Tate Technology, and Mark Norton, executive director of Liberty Lake-based Northwest I90 Manufacturing Alliance, among others. Ray Corwin, senior vice president of Bank of America's regional commercial banking arm, was also in attendance. Ryser noted that the bank assists defense manufacturers with federal procurement.

During the meeting, the manufacturers expressed concerns ranging from the high price of raw and processed materials such as aluminum, federal support for workforce development, including by promoting manufacturing education for public school kids, and making it easier for private businesses to compete with the federal government when trying to sell weapons and other defense products to foreign governments.

"Hypnotize Washington state legislators to understand that business is the backbone of our economy," requested Dean Cameron, CEO of Spokane-based Top Drawer Media, which publishes the Northwest Aerospace News Magazine and the youth-oriented Let's Go Aerospace magazine, publications he described as "an ad agency for the aerospace industry."

Ryser made one of the more direct asks of the afternoon, pointing to a federal subsidy for defense manufacturers to attend foreign trade shows that had been eliminated.

"I think it was called corporate welfare by the, maybe, maybe it was, Elon's ...," she said, before trailing off. "And it's just not."

One manufacturer pressed Baumgartner to support tariffs aiding their industry's competitiveness, arguing that domestic manufacturers face unfair practices from foreign competitors. Baumgartner, who has clashed with the Trump administration on tariffs and argued for free market competition, presented a softer stance in that conference room.

"I'm pretty confident we're all capitalists around this table and want the market to compete, but there are some things that folks like China do, they're just not market based, and cause a real problem for us," he said. "I probably even myself, seeing the bigger picture and more national security focus, probably changed a few of my views."

"It's unfortunate that we have to necessarily do it that way, because it's not as market oriented as it might be," he added. "But we just can't have China shutting us down. If you want to avoid a war with China, we got to prepare for a war with China."

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