Promo went to Washington this week.

Dozens of industry professionals visited with Congresspeople and their staffers on Monday and Tuesday in Washington, D.C. as part of Promotional Products Association International’s Legislative Education and Action Day (L.E.A.D.).

Chuck Machion of ASI (left), Jeff Franklin (center) of Headwear USA (asi/60282), and George Jackson (right) of George Jackson Promotions (GJP Promo) participated in L.E.A.D.

The initiative sees merch pros traveling to the capital to educate Congress about the size, composition, positive impact and importance of the promotional products market, while raising awareness about concerns the industry has regarding legislation and regulation coming down from the federal level.

Chuck Machion, senior vice president and senior counsel at ASI, has been participating in L.E.A.D. for more than a decade. He did so again this year, meeting with staffers for representatives and senators from his company’s home state of Pennsylvania.

As did other L.E.A.D. participants, Machion emphasized certain key points that were part of L.E.A.D.’s broader agenda. He said this included informing Congressional staffers that promo is a $26.1 billion industry composed 98% of small businesses, and communicating the powerful positive impacts promo can have in advancing everything from small-business success and political campaigns to nonprofit charitable initiatives.

“The bottom line,” Machion said, “is that promo products work, and we wanted to convey that.”

L.E.A.D. also involved educating about the industry’s worries over the Labor Department’s new rules on how to classify a worker as an employee or independent contractor. Critics, which include leaders in promo, say the rules could extinguish the livelihood of many independent contractors. L.E.A.D.’s mission agenda stated that the regulations are unworkable as written and that a “reasonable standard that respects independence and entrepreneurship” should be implemented.

“Regarding independent contractors, the six factors the Labor Department wants used to determine independent contractor status are vague and unclear,” said Brian Deissroth, director of national accounts at Top 40 supplier Edwards Garment (asi/51752).

Deissroth, who participated in L.E.A.D., meeting with Congressional staffers from South Carolina and North Carolina, added: “Outside of overturning the legislation, our ask is to clear up the language that is ambiguous.”

Promo pros also talked tariffs, which resurfaced as a hot topic at the federal level and within the industry this week as the Biden administration said it’s increasing duties on $18 billion worth of products imported from China, including steel and aluminum.

Part of the L.E.A.D. agenda was to encourage Congress to retroactively renew two expired trade preference systems that advocates say facilitate supply chain diversification – namely, the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which eliminates duties on thousands of imported products, and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB), which provides temporary duty benefits for U.S. manufacturers and businesses.

“Overall,” Deissroth told ASI Media about L.E.A.D, “the messaging is very well received.”