The National Restaurant Association today announced that U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md) and Congressman Mike Ross (D-Ark) will speak to a crowd of hundreds of restaurateurs from across the country at the 2010 Public Affairs Conference.

Hoyer and Ross join the dynamic lineup of prominent speakers at this year’s conference, including former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and political pundit John Mercurio. The 2010 Public Affairs Conference will be held April 14-16 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C.

“We are delighted to welcome Majority Leader Hoyer and Congressman Ross to this annual conference,” says Dawn Sweeney, President and CEO of the National Restaurant Association.

“The Public Affairs Conference brings together hundreds of restaurateurs from across the country in our nation’s capitol to meet with their members of Congress, advocate for the restaurant industry and discuss issues affecting their businesses. As the nation’s second largest private-sector employer, the industry is a key engine in the U.S. economy. America’s restaurants want to ensure that policymakers understand current challenges and our industry’s critical role in job creation and economic growth.”

Congressman Hoyer was elected House Majority Leader by his Democratic colleagues in 2006, and re-elected in 2008. Now serving his 15th term in Congress representing the Fifth Congressional District of Maryland, he is also the longest-serving Member of the U.S. House of Representatives in state history.

Congressman Ross represents Arkansas’s Fourth Congressional District. Ross was first elected in 2000, and is currently serving his fifth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Congressman Ross is a key leader of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of fiscally conservative Democratic House members that advocates the principles of fiscal responsibility, government accountability and national security.