Robert Rapoza, Rapoza Associates

President and principal, has more than two decades’ experience as a professional lobbyist and is an expert on the federal budget and appropriations process, with special expertise in federal housing and community development policy. He has been responsible for numerous legislative accomplishment, including saving federal rural housing and community development programs from budget cuts, establishing the Intermediary Re-lending Program at the Agriculture Department, sustaining and increasing funding for community development programs at the Department of Health and Human Services, promoting the creation of a YouthBuild program at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and, most recently, successfully steering the New Markets Tax Credit program to enactment. He first became involved with community development issues while serving with the Massachusetts Department of Community Affairs. After moving to Washington, D.C., he held executive positions with the Rural Housing Alliance, the National Rural Housing Coalition (which he continues to serve as executive secretary and legislative director), and the Rural Coalition before establishing Rapoza Associates in 1984. A graduate of Boston College and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, he has served on the boards of several housing and community development organizations and has been profiled in the Washington Post and in the authoritative Beacham's Guide to Key Lobbyists.