Those of us who grew up with Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill” are familiar with how the legislative process works, but last week, some of us in the printing industry got to see at least a portion of the process up close.

On May 15, the PRINTING United Alliance hosted its inaugural “Legislative Fly-In,” bringing 40–45 print business owners and executives—members of the Alliance—to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Congress and educate lawmakers about printing and discuss legislation currently before Congress that can and will affect the printing industry.

Government action often affects the printing industry either directly or indirectly—whether it be tariffs, potential bans on printing ink components, changes in the U.S. Postal Service, business taxation (equipment depreciation, e.g.), and a host of other issues. Thus, the goals of these fly-ins are to a) raise awareness of what the printing industry is (i.e., more than “the local Kinko’s”) and how large it is (~$90 billion, 44,000+ establishments, ~380,000 employees—it’s the third largest manufacturing industry in the U.S. representing a substantial number of voters), and, b) what impacts current and pending laws will have on the industry—and, thus, legislators’ constituents.