May/June 2006
ISRI’s state monitoring program keeps watch over laws and regulations in all 50 states so members can better respond to today’s hot issues and more quickly identify what might arise tomorrow.
By Rachel H. Pollack
In 2005, 22 states proposed scrap tire regulations. Twenty-five states proposed electronics recycling laws. And more than 30 states considered imposing fees that could affect the scrap industry. Though most of such proposals never get signed into law, just one bad bill, if passed, could impose a restriction or a fee that threatens the livelihood of all scrap operators in that state.
To ensure that such developments don’t catch members by surprise, ReMA launched its 50-state monitoring program in January 2005. The program gives members a heads-up to any state legislation that might affect their business—in time for them to influence its outcome.
“These days, much of the legislation that affects our members comes from the states,” notes Steve Hirsch, ISRI’s associate counsel and director of state and local programs, who oversees the expanded state program. The state monitoring service is an early warning system much like NORAD, the agency that monitors North American air space for enemy aircraft or missiles, says Jonathan Levy, ISRI’s assistant director of legislative and regulatory analysis. Knowing what’s coming toward you is the first step in responding, he says.
After all, “how do you defeat something if you don’t know it exists?” he asks. “We let the members know.”
Before ISRI’s state program began, a few chapters monitored state-level legislation in their regions. That system was effective in the states it covered, but “we would miss trends going on throughout the country,” says Billy Johnson, ISRI’s director of PAC and grassroots. The concern was that an issue might take hold in unwatched states and have momentum by the time it reached the states the chapters were monitoring. And even if the legislation didn’t spread, it would affect the members in those less-scrutinized states.
Watching the Skies
The state monitoring program begins with the work of Stateside Associates, an Arlington, Va., company that specializes in real-time tracking of state and local legislative and regulatory activity. ReMA provides Stateside with key issues and terms it follows using both full-text computer search programs and human analysts. Once Stateside identifies a relevant government action—the introduction of a bill, regulations put out for comment, or a bill coming up for a vote—its staff writes a brief report, e-mails it to the ReMA government relations staff, and posts it on the state monitoring section of ISRI’s Web site. To access the reports—organized by state, issue, or chapter—members can go to www.isri.org, log in, click on “Advocacy,” then on “State Monitoring.”
On the Web site, “I can look at other states that are having some of the issues we are and see what language they’re adopting, see where the trend is going. That’s how I use it the most,” says Pacific Northwest Chapter President Lois Young, who handles recycling services for Skagit River Steel & Recycling Inc. (Burlington, Wash.). The state reports provided information that helped her defeat a Washington state bottle-deposit bill a few years ago. This year the reports have helped her shape mercury switch legislation.
“When we proposed the bill and worked with all the stakeholders that were involved with the mercury issue,
I had some ammunition [on how] other states had done things,” she explains. “That’s been really helpful.”
Levy, who worked at Stateside earlier in his career, says he interacts with the company nearly every day to help it fine-tune the keyword searching and to improve the analysts’ reports. To create a thorough report, they “need to go out there and rattle the cages a little bit,” he says. “I gave them a whole list of criteria, of different questions they should ask committee staff, legislators, whoever it is that they’re talking to, to try to get more information.”
That’s one of several ways ReMA adds value to the Stateside service. A second way reflects another similarity between state monitoring and NORAD: Much of what comes across the radar is just static. Lawmakers introduce bills that have no chance of passing, they shuffle bills from committee to committee, and so on. When the state monitoring system first launched, each member who signed up received notice of every action in his or her state. “It was information overload,” says Joshua Joseph, vice president of Muskingum Iron & Metal Co. (Zanes-ville, OH) and Ohio Valley Chapter president. “It was tough to determine what was good and what was bad, what was worth reading and what was not worth reading.”
ISRI members “don’t have the time, the patience, or the interest to be reviewing 50-plus reports a day,” Johnson says, especially if no action is required. “They just ignore them.” Now he, Levy, and Hirsch work together to review all the reports and bring the members’ attention only to the ones they believe require action. This filtering service saves the members’ time, and it keeps them from getting burned out on the political process. “Now when we do call on them, we can really say, ‘Hey, this is important, or we wouldn’t be bothering you,’” Johnson says.
Spreading the Word
When a state government action merits attention from the membership, Johnson and Levy get to work. Each man serves as primary contact point for a different set of states and chapters. Johnson usually begins by sending a summary of the important bill or regulation to the chapter president, legislative council, and other members in that state who have expressed an interest in government relations. “We add value to it by telling them, ‘This is important, this is why it’s important, the [potential] impact, and here’s what we should do about it,’” Johnson says. If it’s urgent he’ll follow the e-mail with a few phone calls. Levy speaks to each chapter’s legislative leadership group through a conference call at least once a month, and both Levy and Johnson send a weekly e-mail to those groups.
Recently, for example, a West Virginia legislator introduced a bill that would restrict how close to a lake, river, or stream a recycling facility can operate. Levy sent an alert to Joseph and other Ohio Valley Chapter leaders. “We spoke with other members in the state, and they didn’t know” about the bill, Joseph says. “A couple of the members would have been directly affected” if it had passed, but fortunately the bill died on its own.
What happens once an alert goes out depends on the members’ response. At one end of the spectrum, they might decide to do nothing—just watch and wait. Some chapters have the resources and infrastructure to form their own response to state legislation once they’re aware of it. Others call upon ISRI’s government relations staff for multifaceted support. ReMA can help build a grassroots coalition, draft talking points and issue briefs, or even come to the state to testify. “They’re getting a full government relations package with us,” says Johnson.
Some ReMA staffers devote nearly all their time to a single, pressing issue—such as mercury switches—on state, national, and international levels. When the monitoring service alerts them to state-level activity, they can use their detailed expertise to help members in that state support, amend, or defeat a proposal. And as that staffer is focusing his time on the issue in a few states, the monitoring service will ensure he does not miss any activity in the rest of the country.
The state monitoring service even supports the lobbyists some chapters employ. “A lot of these lobbyists represent multiple interests, they don’t just represent the scrap industry,” Johnson explains. “We try to help them learn more about the industry,” which includes alerting them to new legislative or regulatory activity.
Putting It in Context
By monitoring all 50 states, the government relations staff can analyze trends in state-level legislation to better respond to today’s hot issues and more quickly identify what might arise tomorrow. So far the staff has created reports on trends in electronics recycling laws, scrap tire regulation, and legislation on various fees. Each report features a one-page overview of the issue and a matrix with details on every proposal, including its state, bill number, and status. (To access the reports, members can go to www.isri.org, log in, and click on “Advocacy.”)
The staff also is creating a report on “tag-and-hold” legislation some state lawmakers are introducing—usually at the urging of police—to combat scrap theft. Such laws force scrapyards to keep detailed records of scrap purchases, report to police the receipt of so-called questionable items, and impound such items for a set period of time. (For more on this issue, see “Combatting Scrap Theft” in the March/April Scrap.) Twelve states have introduced tag-and-hold bills this year. In response ReMA has formulated a strategy to educate state lawmakers and law enforcement agencies about the industry’s efforts—such as the ReMA Scrap Theft Alerts—to curb theft. With that knowledge, “their support of these bills sort of fades away,” Johnson says.
Hirsch, Johnson, and Levy are watching the progress of many other issues, such as landfill restrictions, tipping fees, and diesel truck idling. Further, Levy says, “I saw bills in New York and New Jersey requiring that sodium azide canisters—[which] deploy air bags—be removed from a vehicle before it’s crushed or shredded” because of health and environmental concerns. Because airbag removal is labor-intensive, such laws could prove expensive for the scrap industry.
Monitoring all 50 states “really has enabled us to identify issues before they become trends and then address them as proactively as possible, before the genie gets completely out of the bottle,” Johnson says. With an early start, “we can prepare statements and policy positions, start trying to influence the media, identify who’s behind these types of bills, and begin dialogue with them,” he says.
Hirsch hopes that “over time, more and more chapters will recognize that a focused state government relations effort is essential,” thus more members will ask to receive the alerts and make their voices heard on crucial issues.
“If you get involved, you’ll know what’s going on so that nothing’s going to sneak up on you,” Johnson says. “And then on that (hopefully) rare occasion, we’re going to ask you to take action. And a little bit of your effort—writing a letter or making a telephone call—can really move mountains, especially at the state level.”
For more information on the state monitoring service, contact ISRI’s Steve Hirsch, 202/662-8516 or stevehirsch@isri.org; Billy Johnson, 202/662-8548 or billyjohnson@isri.org; or Jonathan Levy, 202/662-8530 or jonathanlevy@isri.org.
Rachel H. Pollack is editor of Scrap.
ISRI’s state monitoring program keeps watch over laws and regulations in all 50 states so members can better respond to today’s hot issues and more quickly identify what might arise tomorrow.