The National Retail Foundation has launched a $10 million dollar advocacy campaign to push its national agenda onto the political scene for the rest of the year. The trade group representing traditional retailers says that it will spend some of that money on lobbyists to push a 13-point legislative agenda important to its memberships. Notable exceptions include corporate tax reform, fixing or repealing the employer health care mandates passed by President Obama, and enacting the "Main Street Fairness Act." The latter should be noted by consumers because it wants U.S. lawmakers to charge online retailers sales tax so that traditional retailers can compete on a "level playing field."
David French, the group's top lobbyist called these three issues "low-hanging fruit" for the Super Committee. NRF premiered its campaign today with the release of a new study (that it commissioned, which found that retailers directly or indirectly supports about 42 million American jobs. The NRF sent the results of the study, done by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, to every member of Congress. To prepare for the campaign, the NRF also hired new employees to handle government relations and communications.
Oddly enough, some of the NRF's membership happen to be online retailers, and clearly they don't agree with the "Main Street Fairness Act." Still, French says that the group is trying to work towards a consensus on this issue... Expect to hear politicians talk about these issues shortly. Wheels work better, after all, when they are greased, and Congress has very few squeaky wheels these days.
Source: Influence Alley
