I am writing this on my flight back from the 2023 NADA National Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C. Several members of TADA, metro executives and Texas dealers spent a couple of days there working on federal issues impacting dealerships. We visited with members of our Congressional delegation about these challenges and the involvement of Texas franchised dealers in their local communities.

I wish I had better news to report, but the issues are extremely concerning. We focused on three in particular. The first is a proposed rule by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) known as the “Vehicle Shopping Rule,” which would overwhelm car buyers and dealerships with additional paperwork and needlessly lengthen the sales process. The rule was proposed without credible, data-driven or public comment. The proposed rule has negative, unintended consequences for consumers and small businesses. In our meetings, we asked Congressional members to sign onto legislation that would require the FTC to go through the normal rule-making processes so that consumers and dealers would have ample opportunity to engage in the process.

The second issue is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed new emissions standards that would effectively require 67.5% of U.S. car sales to be electric by 2032. U.S. dealers have already invested more than $5 billion on EV tools, equipment, training and recharging infrastructure. The current EPA rules ignore numerous important issues — most of the minerals needed to produce EV batteries are owned by China, the needed infrastructure does not exist and, most importantly, the consumer demand is simply not there. A single national standard for achievable greenhouse gas regulations that leverage consumer demand is needed and stops the federal government from attempting to ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles. We asked Congressional members to support language to prevent EPA from spending money to finalize this unachievable mandate. Currently, the language we want is included in the House Appropriations bill.

The third and final issue we focused on is allowing businesses who use last-in, first-out (LIFO) accounting an extended time to replace inventory if a major interruption makes replacement difficult or impossible. Although we believe the Treasury Department currently has the authority, it has declined to act as they believe additional legislative authority is needed. We asked members to co-sponsor legislation filed by Texas Congressman Jodey Arrington, directing the Treasury Department to take action.

I witnessed first-hand the relationships that our dealers have with their local members of Congress. All of them, of course, knew Roger Williams, our dealer Congressman from Weatherford, and he was supportive of all our endeavors. It was inspiring to see so many of our TADA leaders engaging in their personal relationships on behalf of all members of TADA — for example, the personal relationship that Charlie Gilchrist has with Democrat Mark Veasey, the one that Tony Pack has with Beth Van Duyne and the one that Annette Sykora shares with Jodey Arrington. Their connections, and so many others, transcend politics. It was great to experience the friendships and desire to help their local dealer because they know how important Texas dealers are to their community and our state economy.

I want to encourage you all to build these same types of relationships with your State Legislators and Congressional delegation. TADA supports legislators who support their local Texas dealers, regardless of their political affiliation. It is these personal relationships that result in our successes in the Texas Legislature and Congress. Thank you for being such an integral part of all our work!