ESA Advocacy Gives You A Voice

By Jake Braunger, VP of Legislation and Advocacy at ESA

My first article in Security Nation came at the beginning of 2023, and I figured, with many state legislative sessions having recently ended, it was a good time to revisit the topic of using your voice and advocating on behalf of the industry.  

I mentioned in that introductory article that ESA would be changing its tactics a little and putting more emphasis on including you, the member, and your team in our advocacy efforts. We have put that tactic into effect with gusto. 

So far in 2023, we have launched 11 new issue campaigns. This is a 200% increase from the previous two years combined. Members from around the country have been weighing in on legislative issues important to them. We worked on a paid leave bill in Minnesota, a tax reduction in Wisconsin, and multiple Right-to-Repair bills around the country. For those who have joined in the fight, I thank you. For those who have yet to check out our activity. I invite you to do so. Our updated Advocacy page on esaweb.org houses fantastic information about policy issues and includes a link to easily get involved and communicate with your elected officials what your company needs to see from them. 

We have seen a lot of success with this increase in campaigns as well. Working with industry allies, we are very pleased with the exemption language added to the Minnesota and California Right to Repair bills. In states like Oregon and Missouri, they lost interest in pushing those repair bills. We were unable to stop the most aggressive paid leave bill in the country from passing in Minnesota, but we were happy that we weighed in on the issue and saw its scope reduced some as well. 

In addition to our issue campaigns, we have been directly involved with issues surrounding automatic contract renewals. Multiple states, and even the FTC, are making it more difficult to automatically renew subscribers. As is common, many of the restrictions were launched in response to bad actors from outside our industry. Thankfully, we have found ways to protect our members from this threat so far. 

For those of you who have been seeing what the city of Houston is doing with their attempt to limit our industry to working with only 50 volts, we remain on the front lines, and are completely engaged with the city council there. If a city the size of Houston is successful in its efforts to limit our industry technicians, other similar limitations will no doubt spread elsewhere. ESA is always looking out for the betterment of its members. 

Lastly, I am very excited to announce that we have hired a new Manager of Compliance and Regulatory Affairs. Nick Capezza comes to us with over a decade of experience with other industry associations that are active with groups like NFPA and ICC. He will greatly assist our department objectives, especially as it pertains to licensing and regulations. 

I hope you have been excited to see our advocacy efforts take shape this year and continue to work with us, building relationships with your legislators moving forward. The more we can utilize our voice the stronger our industry will be.