The LDF provides TRSA with the resources needed to initiate action and intervene in matters pertinent to our industry involving legislatures, regulatory agencies, federal and state courts and other legal proceedings.
Why Support the LDF? | Why Now ? | TRSA’s Decade of Advocacy Success | Replenishment Needed to Continue
Why Support the LDF?
TRSA’s member-driven LDF is instrumental to giving a more powerful voice to the linen, uniform and facility services industry in achieving critical advocacy successes. The LDF ensures adequate funds are available at the federal, state and local levels for wide-ranging advocacy issues that may impact TRSA members.
Why Now?
TRSA proactively pursues every opportunity to fulfill our mission to expand, protect and professionalize the nearly $40 billion U.S. linen, uniform and facility services industry through advocacy, education, certification, research, benchmarking and networking. Other organizations offer professional development, networking and information-sharing, TRSA alone advocates for your business at the federal, state and local levels. We have been extremely busy with many issues including:
Frivolous Industrywide Patent Infringement Claims – TRSA is leading the industry’s challenge of the validity of patents that threaten continued use of long-established and conventional methods of inventory tracking. TRSA is committed to curtailing unjustified claims of a proprietary “automated identification, tracking and authentication system.”
Water Discharge (PFAS and Microplastics) – TRSA and industry partners successfully stripped harmful language from the National Defense Authorization Act which would have regulated PFAS chemicals in industrial laundries and TRSA has secured a role on the EPA’s PFAS Working Group. On several occasions TRSA has defeated potential onerous requirements for installation of filtration systems to remove all microplastics (microfibers) from water discharge.
Reusable vs Disposable Garments – TRSA is working to obtain a letter from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) stating reusable textiles are considered a best management practice, in response to all-disposable operating rooms, and coordinating with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to secure a seat on the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC), responsible for guidance of processing healthcare linens.
Tax Reform and Rebates (Indiana and Missouri) – TRSA has added legislative language to exempt rental inventory from personal property tax in Indiana, saving companies tens of thousands of dollars annually. TRSA is also pursuing an industry-wide Franchise Tax reduction in Texas. TRSA successfully secured an industry-specific rebate in Missouri.
Transportation – TRSA is pushing for public grant filing requirement deadline extensions and building the industry’s awareness of funding resources for zero-emissions vehicles including facilitating a “Fleet Summit” to coordinate efforts with manufacturers and agencies. Metropolitan areas including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago require monitoring of and commenting on their efforts to impose a Congestion Pricing “tax” and delivery time restriction.
TRSA’s Decade of Advocacy Success
Thanks to LDF contributions TRSA has eliminated potentially costly and onerous regulations, mitigated attacks by organized labor and the disposables industry and secured pro-business tax policies saving the industry millions of dollars while securing and expanding your markets by successfully:
- Passing legislation in Indiana revising the two-year-old “Wage Assignment Act” to enable payroll deductions for “rental” uniforms
- Battling unsubstantiated claims against uniform/industrial operators processing shop towels and threats of “Class Action Lawsuits” by the disposables industry by spending $200,000 on research and media
- Partnering with the EPA to reduce penalties and permitting fees for volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and voluntary elimination of NPEs from industry chemicals. As well as finalizing a pro-industry shop towel rule.
- Revising the California Department of Health’s Title 22 prescriptive requirement for laundering of acute and non-acute healthcare linens and garments significantly reducing operational costs and production times.
- Shaping New York’s CLEAN Act legislation removing onerous aspects such as the arbitrary standards of cleanliness and reporting of company clients and employee addresses.
- Killing an initiative that would require lodging facilities to use fitted sheets on beds.
- Coordinating efforts in Washington for fair labor policy redefining or repealing rules that would have negatively impacted the industry including Joint-Employer, Overtime and Micro-Union
Replenishment Needed to Continue
These efforts require resources to secure issue and state-specific consultants and experts costing the association hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. We need your support to continue these and other initiatives to expand and protect the linen, uniform and facility services industry.
TRSA will need to raise $1 million during the next few months. If each U.S. company does its part we will quickly and easily reach this goal. We ask that you contribute at a level relative to your annual revenues, recognizing the importance and relevance to helping protect and expand your market.
Thankfully, because of good stewardship, TRSA is financially strong and can fund these efforts initially. But as the only organization advocating and representing your business and fighting for fair, balanced tax, labor and regulatory policies, we need to continually replenish our reserve to stay in the fight and we need your help!