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By
Turner D. Madden, Esquire
HERE IS AN UPDATE ON OUR recent activities in Washington, D.C.
Through the IAAM Life Safety Council and the IAAM Industry Affairs Council
we continue to work with the United States Congress, federal agencies and
departments to project the image that IAAM is the acknowledged leader in the
industry. Currently, we worked on or are working on the below legislative
and federal agency issues.
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act –
In March 2010, the United States Congress passed and President
Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and an
amendment entitled the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010
(hereafter “Act”). We focused on two major issues for IAAM. The first issue
is that we became aware that the House bill included a provision that would
require businesses, including IAAM member venues, to provide health care for
part-time workers on a pro-rated basis. This requirement for part-time
workers would have been very costly to IAAM members. We joined with many
other associations, including the retail industry, and objected to the House
version of the bill by sending letters to members and discussing the issue
with key staff members. The Senate version of the bill was enacted into law
and defines full-time employees as any employee working 30 hours or more a
week. Any person working less than 30 hours is considered part-time and
employers are not required to provide health care coverage under the Act.
The second issue concerned trade associations. We proposed to members of
Congress that trade associations should be permitted to have their own
health care plans which are owned and operated by associations. We were not
entirely successful on this issue. However, the new law does contain
provisions for health insurance exchanges and co-op plans, which may be
created in each state in the year 2014. A health insurance exchange is an
organized marketplace for the purchase of health insurance set up as a
governmental or quasi-governmental entity to help insurers comply with
consumer protections. More details about health insurance exchanges and
co-op plans have to be developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services.
Online Travel Companies and Local Hotel Taxes –
In December 2009, during the US Senate’s consideration of the Travel
Promotion Act, senators from Nevada and Montana tried to amend the bill to
state: “A State or a political subdivision of a State may not levy or
collect any occupancy tax or lodging fee, directly or indirectly, on travel
booking or travel agency services provided by a travel agent or intermediary
... “ The online travel companies such as Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity,
hotels.com, etc. (“OTCs”) typically choose to calculate state and local
hotel occupancy taxes based on the wholesale cost that they pay to a hotel
for a room rather than the retail price they receive from the customer for
the room. The OTCs have been lobbying Congress in an attempt to prevent
state and local governments from collecting hotel room taxes from them. If
enacted, such legislation would place a severe financial burden on all state
and local governments that depend on these local tax revenues. Furthermore,
in many cases, these hotel taxes have been dedicated to the repayment of
development bonds for convention centers and other major public projects.
This practice results in lower taxes collected by state and local
jurisdictions for rooms booked through an OTC, rather than directly with a
hotel. While the OTC industry claims the proposed language is intended only
to bar taxes on the OTCs’ mark-ups, its language is so broad that it
effectively prohibits taxation of the entire retail charge for hotel rooms
that conventional travel agents or OTCs book. The proposed language would
also bar state and local governments from initiating new legal actions to
collect taxes they believe OTCs should have paid in the past, a level of
federal interference in state tax administration with little or no
precedent. IAAM has joined a coalition of entities to oppose this proposed
legislation. The coalition includes the United States Conference of Mayors,
the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties and the
Government Finance Offi cers Association. We also understand that the
Destination Marketing Association has opposed the legislation. Please see
the attached letter from IAAM to Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Nancy Pelosi.
IAAM Comments to FCC on Wireless Microphones and
Broadband Issues – On March 20, 2010, IAAM submitted comments
to the Federal Communications Commission on the proposed regulations to open
the “white spaces” to new technology devices and limit the use of wireless
microphone devices across the country. IAAM argued that wireless microphones
used in live local, regional, national and international public
presentations and performances by IAAM member venues cannot and must not
have interruptions and interference from outside equipment. We also stated
that we agreed with the Coalition of Wireless Microphone Users that
eligibility for licenses to operate Part 74 Low Power Stations should be
expanded to include a) the owners and operators of public assembly venues
(stadiums, arenas, performing arts centers, convention centers,
amphitheaters and major race tracks); or b) the producers of live
performances; or c) professional audio service contractors that service
events and venues. Because registration in the TV Band Device database is
crucial to the effective non-interference with wireless microphone
operations, the Commission’s rules for TVBD’s should be flexible enough for
any of the above mentioned wireless microphone users to acquire a Part 74
license. See links at end of the story to read more about this.
Travel Promotion Act of 2009 – On
February 25, 2010, Congress passed the Travel Promotion Act (“TPA”) and it
was sent to the President for his signature. The objective of the Act is to
increase travel and tourism in the United States by creating a separate
corporation with 11 board members under the U.S. Department of Commerce.
IAAM supported the bill in the House and the Senate. We plan to attend the
meetings held in Washington, D.C. and work with the Board of Directors of
the Corporation for Travel Promotion and the U.S. Department of Commerce to
advance travel, international conventions and other IAAM issues.
Ticketmaster and Live Nation Merger –
On January 25, 2010, the United States Department of Justice approved the
proposed merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation with certain
restrictions that will promote competition in the industry. “The merger, as
originally proposed, would have substantially lessened competition for
primary ticketing in the United States, resulting in higher prices and less
innovation,” according to Ms. Christine Varney, the Assistant Attorney
General for the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division. The new
proposed agreement allows Live Nation and Ticketmaster to merge without
creating those antitrust issues. “The Department of Justice’s proposed
remedy promotes robust competition for primary ticketing services and
preserves incentives for competitors to innovate and discount, which will
benefit consumers,” she said. “…It allows for strong competitors to
Ticketmaster, allowing concert venues to have more and better choices for
their ticketing needs, and provides for anti-retaliation provisions, which
will keep the merged company in check.” IAAM generally monitored the merger
and cooperated with government authorities when requested by them.
Status of New DOJ ADA Accessibility Guidelines
(“ADAAG”) – As you may remember, we made numerous
recommendations and comments on the proposed ADA regulations in October
2008. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration did not act on the proposed
regulations and did not publish the final rules in the Federal Register
before January 20, 2009. I spoke with John Wodatch, the Chief of the
Disability Rights Section for the DOJ several months ago and he indicated
that the DOJ still has several important senior staff positions to fill
before the proposed regulations can even be reviewed by the current
Administration.
Voluntary Preparedness Program (“PSPrep”) –
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) has proposed
regulations for a Voluntary Preparedness Program where an entity may
complete a process to get a certification that they are in compliance with a
disaster management, emergency management, and business continuity program.
DHS has published a notice in the Federal Register announcing its intent to
select standards for adoption in PS-Prep, and has requested public comments
on the suitability of these standards and other programmatic issues. On
behalf of IAAM, we submitted written comments to DHS on January 12, 2010. We
encouraged DHS to substantially broaden the flexibility of the proposed
standards and adopt not just the three standards listed in the proposed
regulations, but adopt private sector preparedness guidelines, standards and
sector “best practices” that are being successfully used by companies and
associations in many sectors. We stated that the PS-Prep program should
incentivize organizations to use what works best for them to improve
preparedness, and not place a barrier of third-party certification with a
choice of only three very cumbersome and time intensive standards that do
not apply to the business entity. If the primary goal of the program is to
“widely encourage private sector preparedness through creation and use of
voluntary standards,” the PS-Prep program must contain meaningful
alternatives and recognize that each sector and business is unique. A copy
of the comments is attached to this article.
DHS Partnership for Critical Infrastructure
Security – In addition to our quarterly PCIS meetings, we
continue to meet and work with DHS on many security issues. I met with DHS
Secretary Napolitano on November 30, 2009 and continue to interact with the
senior leadership of DHS. A copy of the PCIS agenda for the April 14, 2010
meeting is attached to this article.
U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security Commercial
Sector Coordinating Council – The Commercial Facilities
Sector Coordinating Council (“CFSCC”) held a meeting on February 22, 2010 in
Washington, D.C. As a reminder, the CFSCC consists of eight sub-sector
councils. The eight subsector councils are the Public Assembly Facility SSC,
the Sports League SSC (NFL, MLB, NCAA, etc.), the Outdoor Events SSC (fairs
and Disney), the Hospitality SSC (hotels), the Real Estate SSC (Office
Buildings), the Retail Center SSC (shopping centers), the Gaming SSC and the
Motion Picture SSC. A copy of the agenda for the last meeting is attached to
this article.
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Mr. Turner Madden serves as the outside General
Counsel and Lobbyist for IAAM. If you have any questions or comments about
the above issues, you may contact Turner at Madden & Patton, LLC, 1701
Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20006, telephone (202)
349-2050 or e-mail
tm@washingtonattorney.com.
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