Established 2013 Chairman Arie Zwieg | President Lucas Fuksa Location Glenview, IL | |
Mission To address the social, civic, and business interests of the Polish-American community in the United States. Slogan "Together, Our Voice Will Be Heard" | ||
The Polish-American Leadership Political Action Committee (PAL-PAC) is a national Polish-American advocacy and public policy organization headquartered in Glenview, IL a suburb of Chicago. PAL-PAC was founded in 2013. PAL-PAC's goal is to influence action by the Polish-American community and elect more Polish-American politicians into local, state, and federal offices.
Contents
Executive board
The organization is run by an executive board that is elected by a board of directors. In addition to the executive board, PAL-PAC also has a Junior Board and a Founding Board. The current makeup of the Executive Board is;
Visa waiver program
Enacting federal legislation for Poland to be incorporated into the Visa Waiver Program is currently PAL-PAC's top issue. In the beginning of 2013, PAL-PAC launched an online petition directed at the House Judiciary Committee after the Senate passed an immigration reform bill that included language for Polish citizens to be able to visit the United States without the need of visas. The petition was able to garner thousands of signatures but the bill was not able to get out of a House sub-committee
2014 midterm elections
PAL-PAC chose to endorse 6 candidates during the 2014 election. In the year leading up to the election, PAL-PAC hosted two candidate forums that was attended by dozens of candidates including; Bruce Rauner, Mark Kirk, Dan Lipinski, among others at the Copernicus Center in Chicago, IL.
Shortly after Bruce Rauner's victory in the Illinois Gubernatorial race, PAL-PAC released a statement suggesting that they, along with the Polish community in Chicago and the Northern Suburbs, were a large factor in the Governor's victory.