2022年立法日:ASTA“最重要的一天”的两个重点
经过丹尼尔·麦卡锡(Daniel McCarthy)/
每年对旅行贸易的日期比本周在华盛顿特区举行的年度美国旅行顾问协会(ASTA)立法日更重要。
The day brings together travel advisors, supplier partners, and ASTA staff to gather and engage with lawmakers about the issues that matter to them the most, the ones impacting their businesses and their bottom lines on a daily basis. It is pure grassroots advocacy that has, time and time again proved to be most effective for shaping legislative agendas.
来自47个州的230多名旅行顾问参加了今年的立法日,只有3个州比其50个国家的目标害羞。Just a few years ago, according to Chris Seddelmeyer, the owner of Ohio’s Travel Concepts and co-chair of ASTA’s Government Affairs Committee, it would be a task to get advisors from 30 states to Legislative Day, which makes this year’s turnout that much more impressive.
她说:“这是ASTA年中最重要的事件。”“能够访问我们的立法者以了解系统的工作原理绝对令人难以置信。”
立法日可能是立法者或其员工亲自与旅行顾问会面的唯一一次,因此能够建立联系并传达信息的重要性,向制定管理旅行行业的法律的人可以’t be overstated.
与其他任何行业相比,旅行贸易和总体旅行行业受到了Covid-19的影响以及相关的剩菜影响和立法的影响。顾问和代理商所有者在大流行中遭受了不成比例的遭受的苦难,并且随着公司旅行和长途国际旅行的恢复道路,尽管需要返回,但许多人仍处于恢复道路上,许多人仍然低于2019年的水平。
顾问和代理商所有者本周一直与立法者会面,以使他们意识到这一影响,并恳求他们支持相关,现实的法律,这将帮助该行业恢复康复之路。
“The industry owes you all debt of gratitude for making all of us visible in the eyes of our elected officials,” Zane Kerby, ASTA president and CEO, said to attendees on Tuesday.
但是,Kerby补充说:“国会会议可能很棘手”,因此ASTA竭尽全力为成员和立法日与会者提前做好准备。
如何保存旅行交易
Ahead of Wednesday’s meetings, ASTA walked members through legislative training in order to maximize their time on the Hill. Time will always be of the essence during Legislative Day—some meetings will wrap up in the span of 15 minutes—so advisors needed to be prepared to communicate a concise, clear message.
杰西卡·克雷森(Jessica Klement)于去年年底加入ASTA担任倡导副总裁,以及KDCR,两党政府事务公司的合伙人David Peluso和公共事务公司Advocacy Associates的Jason Jordan周二在周二为Advisors提供了失败。
乔丹说:“我们如何试图影响公共政策有很多不同的口味。”他补充说:“像立法日一样,通过基层倡导来放大选民的声音”是最有效的“风味”之一。
立法者或最常是顾问在周三见面的人,想知道谁是顾问,问题是什么,以及可以采取什么措施来帮助他们,没有政治或大型的最有效的信息附带的报告。
ASTA staff told advisors to tell the person they’re meeting where they’re from and what they do including any personal connections they may have to the lawmaker. Then, tell them how you became a travel advisor and what you specialize in, and tell a personal story about how COVID has affected your business. Be clear, concise, and straightforward and be prepared to roll with the punches, whether that be a time cut or a change in venue.
乔丹说,这些消息,以及关于Covid-19如何影响顾问的个人轶事,“以可能使您感到惊讶的方式进行决策,”乔丹说。
尽管如此,即使在短时间内,也有与立法者或其员工会面的机会,也使顾问有机会建立一种可以在道路上开门的关系。
乔丹补充说:“这就是您长期建立影响力的方式。”
今年的优先事项
就在几周前,ASTA在今年的立法日的优先事项不同。影响业务最大的问题是美国的入站测试要求,这将是今年政府宣传的两个主要重点之一。
几周前,备受关注的新闻说,美国正在放弃这一任务 - “将会生活在快乐的日子,”埃本·佩克(Eben Peck)补充说,这是一个机会,可以在山上快速重新评估优先事项。
除了对帮助实现这一目标的议员们感激之情之外,ASTA还强调了会议的两个优先事项。
优先级#1
首先是恢复员工保留税收抵免(ERTC),自从ASTA一直强调的是作为去年通过的两党基础设施法案的一部分,下降了。
While the ERTC is not applicable to ICs, agencies with at least one employee relied on it for relief, and planned on it being part of their bottom line, as business still struggled to come back.
佩克说:“地毯被从他们的下方拉出。”他补充说,此举“完全不公平”。
The goal was to get the ERTC retroactively restored starting in quarter four of 2021. That would need to happen as part of a legislative vehicle, either through Build Back Better reconciliation, theUSICA/中国竞赛法案,或更改年终税单。
除此之外,这在山上面临的阻碍是,已花费了6万亿美元用于Covid救济,一些立法者将寻求抵消ERTC修复的成本(约80亿美元)。但是,佩克说:“人们为此计划,国会夺走了它”,民选官员有责任为这些计划预算,而不是该计划的接收者。
优先级#2
今年的第二大优先事项是《美国访问法》的通过。这是一项两党法案,该法案在美国商务部内建立了旅行和旅游助理秘书。
The U.S. remains the only G20 country without a federal agency or cabinet-level official in charge of tourism policy, and while the Act wouldn’t put someone at the cabinet level, it would represent significant progress, adding a high-level official to work with partners across the world on travel issues.
根据佩克(Peck)的说法,大流行强调了多少没有人监督该行业影响了从事旅行工作的人。
“The pandemic highlighted the scattered nature of federal oversight of the travel trade,” he said.
除了该职位外,它还需要商务部制定和实施COVID-19,以帮助旅行和旅游业继续恢复。
“We’ve been talking about this for two years,” he said, adding that it would help travel and tourism prepare for “the next big disruption” to the industry.
此后,最初的2021年3月访问美国法案已成为一项更广泛的综合旅行和旅游法,该法案于2021年12月从参议院商务委员会中脱颖而出。佩克也对《访问美国法案》获得了支持,因为与ERTC恢复相比缺乏成本,因此获得了支持。