Werner Braun: You can still bend the ear of a congressman

Published 1:38 am Saturday, October 18, 2014

The world is always changing.

From our families to local laws that shape the town, Dalton is a different place every time we step foot out of our homes. But, I bet you can’t guess the one thing that hasn’t changed since 1789.

No guesses?

On March 4, 1789, the first U.S. Congress met. It was the first time a U.S. House of Representatives and Senate convened together after George Washington took office in 1789. The fact this hasn’t changed is significant because The Carpet and Rug Institute and our members can go to Washington, D.C., and communicate our praises and concerns on issues that matter the most to the industry.

For the past seven years, CRI has traveled to “The Hill,” in our nation’s capital to have face-to-face meetings with Congressional members. This year, 11 attendees made 25 visits, meeting with representatives from six different states. We hosted one reception to salute the Georgia delegation.

This was our largest group of attendees and hill meetings to date, but even bigger news is the issues the group raised.

We stressed that uncertainty and regulation are the key factors affecting the recovery of the economy — from energy policy to taxes. As an industry, we need certainty on issues so we can make plans for the future.

We made it clear that the future success and growth of the carpet industry depends on the housing market. We suffer as an industry because residential sales are directly related and impacted by a lower housing market.

On energy, we discussed needing to create a comprehensive, national energy strategy that embraces an “all of the above” approach to energy policy by: Encouraging base load electricity which is dependable power that’s critical to manufacturing. There should be an expanded production of natural gas by encouraging development of shale gas to prevent uncertainty and volatility in natural gas prices. Again, manufacturers need certainty.

On the issue of climate change, Congress needs to pursue legislation that pre-empts regulatory efforts, state and local laws, regional programs and related litigation, such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act uses a 20-year-old statute that bypasses Congress. Also, Congress needs to preserve language in the continuing resolution that prevents EPA from enforcing carbon-emissions rules. EPA’s regulations will make it difficult to attract new manufacturing and may threaten the viability of existing facilities and the valuable jobs they provide.

We also noted during our hill visits that any system must recognize the global scope of carbon emissions, meaning Congress must recognize that climate change issues span across the world.

On taxes, we explained to them the importance of a tax policy that is certain — a two-year extension of the current tax cuts does not do that. Without some certainty, how can we properly plan?

On recycling and the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), we let them know the industry continues as a leader in finding solution to post consumer carpet.

On EPA coal fly ash regulations, we discussed our hope these proposed regulations will be restricted to wet disposal of coal fly ash. But if the EPA goes beyond what we believe its current plan of regulating and impact “beneficial use,” (some types of fly coal ash are used for carpet backing), then our industry and our recycling efforts could be dramatically affected.

And on extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws at the state level, we discussed our concern about the trend in states to enact EPR legislation for products other than hazardous materials (adding more tax on the consumer).

And as consumers and business people, the group made all of our legislators keenly aware of the issues that are affecting the carpet industry. Even though the world is always changing — just like the issues we take to Washington each year — we still have Congress which will take time to listen to the people they represent. Over the years, we’ve developed relationships with many and we are continuing to build on those.

I’m confident our trip was a success, but an even greater success is we have these representatives’ ears, and it’s getting easier and easier to coordinate these meetings because they understand our concerns.

I hope that is one thing that never changes.

Werner Braun is president of Dalton-based Carpet and Rug Institute.