Legislators around the country have been busy over the past month and, consequently, so has SEMA’s government affairs office. Association staff has plowed through thousands of bills and identified hundreds that may be of interest to member companies. The most pressing of these bills result in Action Alerts being shot out to members and highlighted in SEMA News and the SEMA Action Network’s (SAN) monthly publication, Driving Force.
Given limited print space, however, SEMA has expanded this bill-tracking effort into an online compilation provided at no cost, 24/7, on the SAN website, www.semasan.com. Along the left-hand column of the SAN website you will find, in red underlined letters, the words “My State.” Simply find the state in which you do business, click once and you are transported to a list of legislation pertaining to your market’s interests.
Some of the bills listed on the site will never progress past introduction; others will go on to become the laws of tomorrow. The period following a bill’s introduction is critical to its success or failure. It is at this time, immediately following introduction, that SEMA aims to inform members and enthusiasts and encourage their participation in the legislative process through e-mails and phone calls to state representatives. Such correspondence has a proven and direct impact on the decisions of legislators.
We encourage you to visit www.semasan.com. The information on this site will provide you with the tools you need to help affect real change, protect the industry from detrimental state laws and proactively support favorable ones.
Please contact Ashley Ailsworth at ashleya@sema.org if you have any questions. She would be happy to provide you with any bill’s full text, current status and committee information.