American Boating Congress 2017

The American Boating Congress has a fresh administration this year, yielding new opportunities and ideas. There are 62 new members of Congress, making this year’s edition of the American Boating Congress one of the most important in years. There is a lot of education that needs to take place in order to pass laws on critical issues relating to boating and as to why boating matters and is so important to the economy. ABC is organized by NMMA and co-hosted by 25 other organizations and associations.

Key issues that will be discussed are brought to the association by NMMA and other industry advocates on a scale of multiple issues that affect the entire boating industry. The ABC is an especially unique group in respect that they have the opportunity to schedule visits to Capitol Hill to meet with representatives to discuss issues impacting the industry.

“We’ve tried to align our priorities with what Congress is thinking, their top priorities as well as the administration. Issues like transportation, tax reform, are really hot button issues on Capitol Hill right now. We wanted to make sure the boating industry was engaged in those discussions. We’ve already started having meetings and laying out our positions on those key issues” said Nicole Vasilaros, NMMA’s vice president of federal and legal affairs.

Some of the major issues to cover will include ethanol, Magnuson-Stevens reform and trade, and educations. “We’re really making sure we address consumer education. The truth is more ethanol is coming out in our fuel supply and will be more readily available. Consumers need to know what the difference is.”

Some other principles that NMMA would like to see to help the boating industry include lower tariffs, harmonization of boat construction standards, reduction in technical barriers to trade, an establishment of some sort of regulatory coherence mechanism that increases transparency. “Those are really the key principles that would benefit the boating industry, so whatever the agreement that’s something we are going to be putting forward.” Vasilaros

The list of topics covered in the 2017 Policy Agenda include Transportation, Access, Taxes, Jobs, Recreational Fishing, Fuel Policy, Boating Safety, and Conservation.

Please review the NMMA 2017 Policy Agenda for more information on these topics. It is full of great information regarding statistics of the boating industry, job trends, trade and tax reforms, and more.

The American Boating Congress takes place in Washington DC on May 15th through May 17th 2017.