Carpet Industry Meets With Washington DC Legislators

Speaking Up: Carpet Industry Airs Views in Washington, DC

In his March 17, 2011 column, titled "You can still bend the ear of a congressman" for the Dalton Daily Citizen, Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) president Werner Braun discusses his recent trip with a delegation from the carpet industry and North Georgia region to meet with legislators in Washington, DC.

Attracting the largest delegation in the seven-year history of the event, CRI’s Annual Capitol Hill Visits and Salute to the Georgia Delegation Legislative Reception took place March 8 and 9, 2011, in Washington, DC. In a day and a half of back-to-back meetings, the group of eleven participants, working in two teams, met with a total of 25 Congressional representatives and staff from Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina, to discuss issues of interest to the carpet industry and the North Georgia region.

Local participants included: Werner Braun, Frank Hurd and Jennifer Mendez, CRI; Rick Hooper, Shaw Industries; Joe Foye, Mohawk; Larry Cook, Beaulieu; Peter Bailey, J &J; Brian Anderson, Dalton/Whitfield Chamber of Commerce, Noel Black, Georgia Power, and Jeremy Stroop, Carpet America Recovery Effort.

The Georgia group was joined by Maryland small-business owner Patrick Royster, whose company, Carpet Repair Services of Germantown, Maryland, participates in CRI’s Seal of Approval carpet cleaning certification program as a Service Provider.

Participants discussed with lawmakers the need for increased consistency in legislation and a unified energy policy that would enable companies to formulate long-term financial plans.

“We made it clear that the future success and growth of the carpet industry depend on the housing market. We suffer as an industry because residential sales are directly related to and impacted by a lower housing market.

On energy, we discussed the need to create a comprehensive, national energy strategy that embraces an “all of the above” approach to energy policy. And on extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws at the state level, we discussed our concern about the trend in states to enact EPR legislation for products other than hazardous materials (adding more tax on the consumer).

And as consumers and business people, the group made all of our legislators keenly aware of the issues that are affecting the carpet industry. Even though the world is always changing — just like the issues we take to Washington each year — we still have a Congress which will take time to listen to the people they represent. Over the years, we’ve developed relationships with many and we are continuing to build on those.

I hope that is one thing that never changes.”

Thank you, Werner,

Bethany