Hal D. Hiemstra

“We excel at helping clients achieve policy and funding goals that will strengthen their businesses and make their communities safer, healthier, more economically vibrant and more sustainable.”

Hal Hiemstra has more than 30 years of experience in government affairs. He represents a wide range of public and private sector clients on issues involving transportation, aviation, appropriations and other federal funding, economic development, infrastructure, community health and safety, Native American gaming and the environment. He has specialized knowledge in federal transportation policy and understands how transportation investments can make communities more livable and sustainable. He has assisted clients with major streetcar and transit developments, regional planning and design efforts, and achievement of niche federal policy changes to resolve specific client problems.

Mr. Hiemstra has helped clients secure millions of dollars in federal grants and Congressionally-directed funding for highway, bridge, water and waste water infrastructure projects, health care facility development, juvenile justice initiatives, drug enforcement and policing programs, shoreline restoration, and rail development. He has designed and helped to secure Congressional passage of a national pilot program on the redevelopment of airport impacted properties. He was instrumental in developing a national pilot program on short-haul rail infrastructure development, and helped to lead a national lobbying strategy to secure investment tax credits for freight rail car manufacturing in the United States. Mr. Hiemstra authored federal legislation limiting the exposure of local airport operators to ever-increasing fees associated with the operation of aviation contract control towers, and successfully lobbied for federal funding that has led to the redevelopment of a modern U.S. streetcar manufacturing industry.

Prior to joining Ball Janik LLP in 1998, Mr. Hiemstra worked for 19 years on national transportation and agriculture issues. He held leadership positions in two national conservation organizations, chaired an industry sponsored national grassroots campaign on federal transportation policy and directed a national research foundation on agricultural and farmland policy issues. He served as a consultant to the Carter Administration’s National Agriculture Lands Study and in 1991 was appointed to the National Scenic Byways Commission by President George H. W. Bush.

Mr. Hiemstra serves as a senior political advisor to a broad national transportation coalition made up of more than 500 groups and organizations seeking to align national transportation policies with an array of issues such as economic opportunity, climate change, energy security, health, housing and community development.

Mr. Hiemstra actively serves on a variety of local school committees, has twice served as president of his children’s PTA, and actively raises private funding for various school initiatives. He has also served on the Board and is a past President of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA), the region's nonprofit bicycle advocacy and education membership association.