Hoteliers lobby Congress for hotel and consumer friendly policies at Hotels on the Hill

MHLA President & CEO Amy Rohrer led the Maryland delegation meetings.  Pictured left to right: Daniel Clayton (Office of Rep. Ruppersberger); Jeffery Donnelly (DiamondRock Hospitality); Jim Starke (Best Western Plus BWI Airport – Arundel Mills); Amy Rohrer; Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger; Michael Howard (Hyatt Place Baltimore); Seth Dintzer (AHLA)

The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) hosted its annual Hotels on the Hill fly-in event September 23-24, drawing more than 200 hoteliers and industry leaders from 36 states to Capitol Hill to lobby for a variety of important policies.

America’s nearly 64,000 hotels are a bright spot for America’s economy and include more than 33,000 small businesses. The hotel industry supports nearly 1 in 25 American jobs, and in 2024, hotels are projected to pay employees a record $123 billion in wages, salaries, and other compensation while generating nearly $83.4 billion in tax revenue.
 
To maintain these positive economic contributions in communities across the nation, hoteliers are calling on lawmakers to:

• Grow the hotel workforce by co-sponsoring and passing the Closing the Workforce Gap Act (H.R. 7262), from Reps. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Jack Bergman (R-Mich.). The bill would replace the arbitrary annual cap of 66,000 available H-2B temporary visas with a new, needs-based system.
• Protect small businesses by extending the pass-through tax deduction (199A), which is set to expire in 2025 and provides crucial tax relief to franchisees and other hotel small businesses.
• Help to create jobs and support hoteliers by maintaining the like-kind exchange (section 1031), which allows hoteliers to defer capital gains taxes when they sell one property if they roll the proceeds into the purchase of a larger one, thereby helping create new jobs and contributing to economic growth.
• Protect the franchise business model by opposing any efforts at the federal level to weaken the franchisee-franchisor relationship – a cornerstone of the hotel industry.
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“Nothing is more effective at shaping public policy for our industry than when hoteliers and their employees tell their stories directly to legislators,” said AHLA Interim President & CEO Kevin Carey. “From tax policies that promote small business growth, to expanding the hotel workforce, to challenging burdensome regulations, there’s no limit to what hoteliers can achieve when we’re united and speak with one voice. Hotels on the Hill gives us a unique opportunity to do just that.”