Last May, the PRINTING United Alliance hosted its first “Legislative Fly-In,” a Washington, D.C., gathering of about 45 print business owners to meet their elected representatives in Congress and discuss pending or proposed legislation that affects the printing industry. I had participated as part of the media team, and it was an interesting and educational look at how “the sausage gets made.”

Last week, the Alliance hosted its second Legislative Fly-In, again gathering print business owners as well as vendors—including representatives from the likes of Mimaki, Agfa, Sun Chemical, Heidelberg, and Avery Dennison—industry analysts, and members of the trade press. Some of this year’s attendees had participated last year, but most were newbies. The event was coordinated by ACG Advocacy, which has been working with the PRINTING United Alliance on government lobbying efforts.

As we all know, government action often affects the printing industry in one way or another—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. So the goals of these fly-ins are to raise awareness of what the printing industry is (i.e., more than “the local Kinko’s”) and how large it is—it’s the third largest manufacturing industry in the U.S. representing a substantial number of voters—as well as describe the impacts that current and pending laws have on the industry and, thus, legislators’ constituents. We are all armed with a fact sheet: