Travel Advisors Attend ASTA Legislative Day 2025 Amid Authorities Shutdown

Washington, D.C. – The ongoing authorities shutdown didn’t cease greater than 200 journey advisors from descending on Capitol Hill for the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA)’s Legislative Day 2025.  

ASTA hosted programming for the annual occasion at Hilton Washington, D.C. The Wharf this 12 months. For 90 of the 230 in attendance, who got here from 43 states together with Alaska and Hawaii, it was their very first time collaborating in Legislative Day. 

“Congress needs to hear from us,” stated Zane Kerby, president and CEO of ASTA. “If we fail to show up at our appointed times, our concerns go unheard and our perspectives unconsidered. It’s about educating lawmakers about who we are, what we do, and why their decisions matter to our business and to the traveling public.” 

The week started with a Travel Industry Forecast presentation on the National Press Club on Oct. 6, continued with coaching classes on Oct. 7, and concluded with the entire motive why this occasion exists – conferences with members of Congress and their staffers – on Oct. 8.  

A complete of 165 conferences passed off; solely 16 have been cancelled because of the shutdown and shall be rescheduled just about as soon as the shutdown ends. Aside from some barely longer safety strains and fewer eating choices inside Capitol buildings, the shutdown didn’t have any main affect on the day. 

Advocating for Federal Policies 

There have been three legislative priorities on the docket this 12 months: the Flight Refund Fairness Act (H.R. 5556), the ACPAC Modernization Act (H.R. 5663), and the Modern Worker Empowerment Act (H.R. 1319/ S. 2228).  

“The laws that are passed have an impact on how we operate and without our input, most of the time government officials get it wrong,” stated Alex Eaton, CEO of World Travel Service, who attended for the third time this 12 months. “Legislative Day is our opportunity to make things right. It truly is our chance to make ourselves heard in government.” 

The Flight Refund Fairness Act addresses a present regulation that ASTA says unintentionally harms small journey companies, requiring ticket brokers to refund canceled or considerably delayed flights in seven days, whereas airways solely have to refund the ticket agent “promptly.” The proposed invoice would require airways to reimburse the ticket agent “merchant of record” (the journey advisor) inside seven days of a flight cancellation or vital delay. 

“This could cripple the small business in our network if they have to refund tickets before they have the funds back from the airline to do so. [Lawmakers] need to look at how the cash flow works for advisors and consider who is actually holding the funds. I would never want to see something like this put the businesses of our network members in financial risk, or deter them from ticketing air all together,” stated Alicia Onello, director of community operations for Envoyage. 

The ACPAC Modernization Act would add a ticket agent member to the Department of Transportation’s Aviation Consumer Protection Advisory Committee (ACPAC). ASTA argues that journey advisors guide 781,000 airline tickets per day on behalf of their purchasers, and due to this fact, ought to have a seat on that committee. It additionally may have prevented the dangerous airline ticket legal guidelines from being handed within the first place. 

Lastly, ASTA reignited their struggle for The Modern Worker Empowerment Act this 12 months; they’d not spoken in regards to the situation to Congress since 2020. It is the one partisan situation they’re supporting, with not a single Democrat signing on. The invoice would standardize the definition of an unbiased contractor (IC) as a result of it’s presently completely different when coping with the IRS and Department of Labor, creating threat and confusion for companies. 

“We all have ICs, and the lack of clarity and lack of consistent language in federal (and state) laws concerning ICs makes it impossible to create business policy,” Eaton stated. “How do you manage ICs when you don’t have a consistent set of rules? It’s impossible. I think our efforts will help bring clarity to the laws and make it better for agency owners.” 

Boosting Travel Advisor Visibility 

During coaching, advisors realized about the way to inform the story of their enterprise to legislators. David Lusk, founder and CEO of Key Advocacy, led a session in regards to the artwork of storytelling, and Jessica Klement, ASTA’s vice chairman of advocacy, held informational classes and a panel with Congressional staffers. Later on, Lusk joined with Laura Vogel, ASTA’s director of advocacy, to steer delegations in workshops so they might apply what they might say of their conferences.

Attendees reported that the elevated studying from previous Legislative Days has helped higher put together them for the large day. “The ASTA team has it down to a science,” stated Jay Ellenby, president of Safe Harbors Business Travel.

The aim was to type a reference to lawmakers – just like how journey advisors type long-term relationships with purchasers – and drive that dwelling with their “asks,” the three insurance policies ASTA is advocating for. Ideally, this additionally helps increase visibility for the journey advisor career on the Hill.

With many new members of the House and Senate this 12 months, Klement stated the conferences weren’t solely a chance to speak about laws, however to construct recognition with representatives. 

“This is a great time to spend some time educating new members and likely new staff about your travel agency and the travel advisor profession,” she stated. “This really does present a lot of opportunity to talk more about your business and what you do as opposed to going through the issues.”   

Travel advisors are starting to see the affect of displaying up at their legislators’ doorways. Onello attended for the second time this 12 months and had constructive experiences throughout the board. 

“We had one meeting where they remembered us and some of the conversations members of our delegation had with them last year, making our asks for their support much easier,” she stated. “Our voices collectively can absolutely make a difference.”