NIADA Policy Day Oct 13th

You are listening to the Independent Dealer Podcast with hosts Luke Godwin and Jeff Watson. Thank you so much for tuning in. Let's do this.

Hello guys and gals. Welcome to this special episode of the Independent Dealer Podcast. We have got Sean Peterson here with us to give us a quick, quick, quick update and mobilize our Independent Dealer Podcast community for Policy Week. Right, Sean? Not much a week, is it?

It's unfortunately with things being very different this year and I think we're all tired of very different. Book me in that category. But you know, typically we would have a nice two and a half days in Washington D.C. with great events, an opportunity to be on Capitol Hill and knocking on doors of congressmen and senators. And you know, Luke will tell you, having done it many times, it's probably my favorite event. He might agree with that. It's just an opportunity for dealers to get in there and tell their story, meet the policymakers. We also have had events with the regulators as well. Unfortunately, this year Washington, D.C. is closed in all intents and purposes. You can't even get onto Capitol Hill as a public. So we've had to go virtual and we're all tired of going virtual. But it's important that we continue to still move forward with the government affairs and policy related things and I think probably more important now than ever. So this year on Tuesday, October 13, beginning at 11:00am Eastern Time, we will have a truncated virtual policy conference. We'll have about an hour and a half worth of content. Give you an update on what's happening with NIADA and its government affairs team. We'll kind of look at some of the important issues we've worked on this past year, what we anticipate happening with our issues moving forward post election in what we call lame duck Congress, which is the time post election until the new Congress is sworn in in January, we'll talk about what to expect with our issues after the new Congress is seated. And depending on which administration takes over, we'll have a half an hour discussion with Malini Mithal of the Federal Trade Commission. Mollanie is the Associate director of the Financial Practices Division, which is the group that regulates car dealers. They've been very active over the course of the past couple of years, but interestingly, Molly and I talked a lot about what to expect moving forward as well. The FTC we've really seen here over the course of the last couple years, them really step up their enforcement activity. They've had some very significant cases in our space against dealers, against service providers like they had an enforcement case against a DMS provider that we'll talk about. Had an enforcement case against an advertiser that was doing advertisements for car dealers. But there's also, interestingly enough, they've talked about being much more aggressive in promulgating regulations at the FTC against car dealers. There's two commissioners at the FTC that have been beating the drum very loudly on trying to do that. So we talked a little bit about that as well. Then finally we'll have a half hour session from two of my colleagues at the U.S. chamber of Commerce and they're going to talk about the election. We'll have the vice president of Small Business policy there. There's a guy by the name of Tom Sullivan, fantastic guy. And then we'll have Ashley Rich Stevenson, who is the vice president and in essence she's in charge of all political affairs at the chamber. And they'll talk about the election from the impact that it will have on small business. They'll talk about various outcomes. They'll talk about what happens in a Trump administration, a Biden administration, a Republican Senate, a Democrat Senate. We don't anticipate the House is going to flip, but we'll get the whole primer from them. So it's a really for an hour and a half worth of content, I think it's great stuff for dealers to jump on and take a few minutes and watch.

That's great, Shawn. I know that in the past that day where we get to meet with all those agencies is very enlightening. I've learned so much from the ftc, from the Department of Labor, from the cfpb. I guess years past we've had them as a dealer. Do we have to log in on Tuesday? We know it's free, right? It's free to all dealers as normal. Do we have to log in on Tuesday or can we watch it virtually later on?

It will be available later on. It is free. I think that's an important point. Luke. It will cost you nothing to attend. And really all you need to do is go to nidapolicyconference.com 11 o' clock Eastern Time. The videos will be playing. And yes, it will be available for viewing on demand and we'll distribute that. It'll be available on that website and we'll have links available to it on NIADA TV as well.

Great. And one other thing, I know that it's huge and we usually have a big to do Tuesday nights at the policy conference is raising money for the PAC and those out there don't know what the PAC is. The PAC is money that we as individuals give to the PAC fund of NIADA to support members of both parties that look out for small dealers like us. And I know there'll be fundraising this year. Sean, is there a way that we can go about to donate money even if we're not there?

Absolutely. So being engaged politically is critical. It's interesting. I get a lot of questions of, well, isn't this just pay to play? And it's not. The purpose of the political action committee fund that we have at NIADA is to find and support candidates for public office. And we don't get involved in presidential politics. We only get involved in congressional elections. So we find and support those candidates, to your point, from both parties that will support, defend and protect the independent used motor vehicle industry and small business. And we have great allies on both sides of the aisle. So over the years, I think at that event alone, we typically will raise in the neighborhood of about $150,000 for the PAC. And it's meant to be spent. Unfortunately, when you're running for public office, it costs money. You have to get your message out. And these contributions that we make enable those candidates to do that. So for members of NIADA that are interested, you could go to pac.niada.com and there's more information on how you can get involved. We have an event for those that are eligible PAC donors with Senator John Thune on Tuesday the 13th as well, that'll start at 1pm Senator Thune's from South Dakota and it's the number two Republican in the Senate. You know, the Senate, you know, we view as being very pro business lately. And one of the things that we've kind of looked at as we've decided where we're going to allocate our political contributions is what can we do to ensure that on October or, excuse me, on November 4th, we wake up and there is, you know, pro business protected Senate. So we've been pretty aggressive in reaching out to senators for support. The Senator Thuden's part of that group.

Right. And I think I saw somewhere that we could text a number to somewhere and donate to the pack that way. I know that's. That's kind of easy. Is that available? I thought I saw that somewhere.

That is not available, unfortunately. I gotta go back and, you know, that's a good question. I think I need to check with Angela. What I think with the way that works is if you text that particular number, you get the link that I just Gave you.

Okay, okay.

Unfortunately, the Federal Election Commission requires forms to be filled out, you know.

Yeah, that's right.

There's a process. So pac.nida.com it's easy peasy. It takes just a few minutes to.

Do, and it's so important. Guys and gals out there, I've just seen from the start of this policy conference. And you know, when. When we walked onto the Capitol Hill back then, people didn't know who we were. And Sean has done such an amazing job with this PAC fund and raising money and getting both sides of the aisle to us, the ones that support small businesses, to listen to what we have to say. And I promise you, they wouldn't be listening to us if we didn't have the presence we have up there from Sean and from the people working at NIADA and the money that we have in our pack, they wouldn't be listening to us. And so we got to donate, we got to give money, because that's what makes politics go round, unfortunately.

Here's a funny anecdote, if you don't mind me sharing, Luke. So for years, we started the policy conference in 2012, I think was the first year. And those first couple of years, we spent a lot of time really just talking to members of Congress and explaining to them who we were, right? We're Niada. We're independent dealers. And we would get the kind of perplexed look, you're Nada. No, no, no, no. We're niada. And so there's a lot of that. About two years ago, I think it was two or three years ago, we happened to have our policy conference at the same time Nada had their policy conference. And I was walking a group of dealers through the bowels of the Capitol, going from one meeting to another, and one of Nada's staff members who works the Hill grabbed me. We pass each other in the hall and she grabbed me. She's like, oh, I've got the funniest story for you. You know, Niada had a meeting scheduled with a particular congressman, and I, you know, let's say 2 o' clock that afternoon. Their group had one scheduled at 11 o'. Clock. So she's like, yeah, we popped into the office and said, hey, we're Nada. We're here to visit with the congressman. And scheduler looks down. It's like, no, no, no, no. I have Ni Ada at 2:00'.

Clock.

No, no, no, no, we're nada. So the script got flipped right there. You know, first time, we don't we.

Don'T ever get that.

It was a great story. But it does. It takes a lot of work and it's important. It's not work that we do, it's a part of it. But the most important work is what the dealers do. So this is a great way, unfortunately, in the environment we're in, to be engaged as best we can.

I think one thing I think about is if you're not involved with these things, you can't complain about what's going on in Washington and in your state and in these laws. So be involved, do all you can, donate to the pack and then complain. Or don't be involved, don't do these things and don't complain. Correct.

There's a saying in DC, in politics, if you're not at the table, you're on the menu that we be at the table.

That's true. That's true. Especially from FTC CFPB standpoint for sure. Then we're easy pickings if we're not.

There to defend ourselves 100%.

Well, thank you for all your look forward to checking out over the next couple days.

Fantastic. Really appreciate being with you guys this morning.

Thanks John. Take care.

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