I invite you to join the first virtual ATD Fly-In beginning Tuesday, June 22. If there ever was a moment for political engagement and dealer participation, it’s now. And while we won’t get together in person in our nation’s capital for this year’s fly-in, we will make our presence known and our voices heard to legislators through our virtual platform.
Truck dealers continue to face challenges as overly broad regulations, harmful taxes, and unreasonable mandates impact our businesses, customers and employees. After enacting a $1.9 trillion spending bill, Democrats continue to push an aggressive agenda on comprehensive infrastructure legislation and new tax increases. But what lawmakers sometimes don’t know is that dealers are some of the first to feel the pain of complicated federal regulations. So we must have a seat at the table. The ATD virtual fly-in is your opportunity to have a say in the rules and regulations that impact your operations.
First and foremost, ATD is determined to repeal the outdated 12% federal excise tax (FET) on heavy-duty trucks and trailers, a senseless tax that grossly inflates the price of a new truck and delays fleet turnover. As Congress works to modernize highway funding, FET repeal is possible as part of the expected trillion dollar-plus bill. But we need your voice to see this battle through!
The week of June 21 is dedicated as ATD’s “Repeal the FET” week. This is our opportunity to tell our members of Congress that repealing this tax is a good thing: it will help protect U.S. jobs; replace older trucks with newer and greener trucks; and modernize America’s truck fleet in a way that makes sense. I urge ATD dealers to join this battle and support repeal of the FET.
As ATD chairman, I will be pleased to welcome you to our event along with Marty Murphy, executive vice president of the Automobile Dealers Association of Indiana. On June 22, we will be joined by Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) at 11:00am. Sen. Young will be sharing his perspective on our commercial truck industry and what we can expect from the federal side. And you don’t want to miss our virtual industry panel with a group of experts as they discuss future truck technologies, and the challenges facing the trucking industry from the perspective of next generation truck dealers.
The ATD legislative staff is here every virtual step of the way to Capitol Hill. They are ready to help you schedule virtual meetings with your members of Congress. In past ATD fly-ins, we’ve held over 100 meetings with congressional members. I have no doubt we can meet that mark if not exceed it this year.
Be on the lookout for additional information that ATD will release very soon. Save the date, and I look forward to seeing you the week of June 21.
For questions, contact David Bell with ATD Legislative Affairs at dbell@nada.org or 202.547.5500.
