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Contact: Tom Delaney
Phone: (703) 736-9666
E-mail: tomdelaney@landcarenetwork.org

For Immediate Release

PLANET NAMES BUSINESS CHAMPIONS OF THE YEAR

HERNDON, Va., August 1, 2006 — The Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) is pleased to announce the co-recipients of its 2006 Business Champion of the Year Award — U.S. Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), Barbara Mikluski (D-Md.), and Mel Martinez (R-Fla.). This award was created to honor individuals who have influenced the green industry in a positive way.

Serving his second term in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Chuck Hagel has played a valuable and potentially historic role in helping his colleagues put together a comprehensive immigration reform bill that tackles all of the necessary issues. His work on immigration reform has been constructive and responsible.

Sen. Mel Martinez also has worked hard on comprehensive immigration reform and the compromise offer that broke the Senate bill stalemate. He was sworn in as Florida’s senator in 2005 and took his place in the history books as the first Cuban-American to serve in the U.S. Senate.

PLANET also chose Sen. Barbara Mikulski as an award recipient because of her stand on H-2B issues in the bills she introduced over the years. She won her first senate race in 1986 with 61 percent of the vote and was re-elected with large majorities in 1992, 1998, and 2004. Mikulski is also the dean of the Senate women.

Recipients of this year’s annual Business Champion of the Year Award were announced at PLANET’s Legislative Day on the Hill event, July 25, 2006, in Washington, D.C. As part of the event, lawn and landscape company attendees from all parts of the country spent time visiting with their congressional representatives. The day prior to the visits on Capitol Hill, participants spent much of the day volunteering their time and skills to enhance the grounds at Arlington National and Historic Congressional cemeteries for PLANET’s "Renewal & Remembrance" project. More than 300 people attended the two-day event.

For more information, about Legislative Day on the Hill and Renewal & Remembrance at Arlington National and Historic Congressional cemeteries, contact Tom Delaney at (800) 395-2522 or visit the PLANET Web site, www.landcarenetwork.org.

PLANET represents approximately 4,400 green industry service provider companies and suppliers nationwide that specialize in lawn care, design/build/installation, interiorscaping, and landscape management. These firms and their employees represent more than 100,000 green industry professionals.