FROM THE INFORMATION DESK AT ARA
“I would encourage you: be informed – knowledge is power.” Matt Bevin
Mike Peplinski and I have had the privilege of acting as liaisons between the Repo Alliance and their hired lobbyists, Matt Henken and Jennifer LaTourette, who come from a well-established firm in Washington DC, Van Scoyoc Associates . LaTourette was married to Steve LaTourette, a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1995 until 2013, who himself became a lobbyist before his passing. The LaTourette’s have been well known on Capitol Hill for decades and we are proud to have Jennifer as one of our lobbyists fighting for the industry.
Both Mike and I have been impressed with several things about this firm – they have shown to have great access to the various staff members of the senators they have wanted to contact. Secondly, they have shown a great ability to frame up our concerns and communicate those concerns in a clear and compelling way. In addition, it has been surprising how much time these senator’s staffers are willing to give Jennifer and Matt to make their case for the Repo Alliance when they call.
We have been teleconferencing with various Republican members of the Senate Committee on banking, housing and urban affairs. Each one had the same initial statement – that the bill as presented to the Senate by the House of Representatives was “DOA” – not one member wanted the bill to pass at is was.
However, the staffers did admit that the Senate would have to come up with compromises – they did not know which elements of the House’s bill would ultimately be approved and which elements would have to be pushed back. We have watched the news day by day and can sense from the press and the public a demand for the Senate to pass some version of the House bill – a bill that would have placed a 180 day moratorium on all repossessions with no exclusions for voluntaries or impounds.
We do know that due to our industry’s reputation, in the eyes of the public and with some lawmakers, some might have been fine putting the repossession industry across America on hold for 180 days – an action which would decimate a large portion of our industry.
The role of the Repo Alliances, side-by-side with their lobbyists, is to make sure we are collectively aware of any ongoing discussions about repossessions or repossession moratoriums and continue to make the case to the Senate Republicans of the damage this legislation could to do to the US consumers. We want to be the “go to” source of information about the unintended consequences of any repossession-related legislation, which we understand may surface as a real possibility over the next few weeks.
It’s has been personally enlightening and we can see that if our voice was absent, our industry could have easily been thrown under the bus early on in this discussions. However, we have successfully contacted and convinced a large number of key senators to think twice about failing to consider the negative impacts of doing so. There is a saying in the world of lobbyists that if “you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu” and this is absolutely the case with the repossession industry and this pending, overreaching legislation that was put forth by the House of Representatives.
Thank you to all that have supported the Repo Alliance financially and in spirit. There was and is a good chance that without YOUR voice, the industry would have to park their trucks until partway into 2021 – how many of our repo families could endure that?
Continue to follow the actions of the Repo Alliance in its defense of the repo industry. Together we can make a difference.
J. Patrick Altes and Mike Peplinski
Legislative Liaisons for the Repo Alliance
Facebook Comments