NORWICH – Three months into the job as freshman Congressman representing New York in the nation’s capital, 24th District Representative Richard L. Hanna seems thus far unaffected.

In fact, he came alone and drove himself to meetings with business leaders in Chenango County yesterday.

“They have work to do,” he said, referring to his staff in Auburn near where he lives and at his Washington, DC office.

He said the work he’s doing at the federal level is all about creating an environment where businesses can grow and create jobs.

Hanna met with City of Norwich officials, industrial development representatives, nonprofit leaders and a number of local business executives at Commerce Chenango in the Eaton Center, and later toured the Northeast Classic Car Museum in Norwich.

He updated the group on local subjects, including:

Unison Industries – Hanna visited the plant earlier this year and voted to support on the House floor its manufacturing of parts for GE’s F-136 engine. His vote, however, was not enough to save the project, and funding now rests in the hands of the Senate. The Congressman said he was “surprised” that some of his New York colleagues “didn’t understand that competition between two companies’ engine projects made economic sense.” (Pratt and Whitney is also manufacturing a jet engine for Lockheed Martin’s F35 Joint Strike Fighter.)