Deja Vu all over again. For the first time in three years, we were again able to conduct our industry’s Moving Day on Capitol Hill, this time with our new national association, the ATA Moving and Storage Conference. This is an annual event that I have been a part of every year since 2006, except for the COVID years. As usual, I boarded my Southwest flight on a Sunday morning and had a layover in Nashville before arriving in DC in the early evening. As I boarded my second flight in Nashville, I thought the flight attendant, a small older man with a grey beard and a southern accent seemed familiar. About 10 minutes into my flight, I remembered how I knew him. The last time I flew to Washington DC he was part of the flight crew. In 2019, he seemed to notice me as I was one of only a few passengers wearing a sports coat on a Sunday afternoon flight, something one has to do if traveling with only a carry-on bag, and I was typing away on my laptop. I generally like to catch up on my writing as I fly. As we were disembarking from our flight he was at the door, repeating the obligatory thank you to each person getting off the plane, until he got to me when he stopped, looked me square in the eye, and said in an ominous tone, “Welcome to the Swamp.” I assumed from his demeanor that he believed that I was part of the problem. Oh well, you can’t please everyone.

We conducted committee and board meetings in the elegant and brand-new ATA headquarters near the Washington Navy Yard in Washington DC. They have a wraparound patio on their 8th floor and even a brand-new semi-tractor in the lobby of their industrial chic space. They also have a media studio and staff, allowing me to shoot two videos. I had the privilege of leading a 3 1/2 hour Rogue Operator Summit that included presentations from a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the director of fraud prevention from AARP, and the Executive Director of the National Crime Prevention Council. We had lively discussions and were very pleased to add such an impactful consumer education element to our Enforcement Task Force. Additional good news is that the DOJ and the DOT office of the Inspector General have started to conduct effective enforcement actions related to the criminal activity of rogue operators.

On Lobby Day, we started at ATA’s second location in DC–a first-class ATA lobbying headquarters, a three-story building with a rooftop lounge within a block of the Capitol. Our lobbying group for Capitol Hill was one of the most effective teams we have assembled for speaking to California members of congress as well as the offices of our two California Senators, which included Griselda and Charlie Gonzalez of CG Moving, Rick Smith and Sofia Marr of CMS Relocation and Logistics, Mario Reyes of Southbay Moving Systems, and Heidi Liou of Supermove. It was my privilege to be the selected leader for this group. Also participating in Lobby Day were CMSA Senior Chairman John Chipman Jr. and ATA MSC Vice Chair Bill Lovejoy. We covered issues that are important not only to members of the CMSA but also to movers around the country. Issues included Rogue Operators and federal enforcement, the ProAct, and concerns about destroying the IC model that works so well for the entire country. We made sure that all understood our concerns about California’s AB 5 as well. Additionally, we reinforced the need for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to include a standardized Base Access protocol and that Personally Identifiable Information (PII) like Names and Social Security numbers be scrubbed from all manifests before the US Government sells any information to private industry, something that is currently done with information the department of Homeland Security receives on all international shipments.

The CMSA and our issues were very well represented in Washington DC.

October 2022 - CMSA Communicator