WASHINGTON The National Restaurant Association voted Tuesday to foster the development of a domestic aquaculture industry by encouraging the creation of a federal framework to regulate the trade.
During the board meeting, the association also endorsed a policy of actively pursuing health insurance reforms that fit the industry’s preference for flexible, market-driven ways of expanding coverage. The group specifically said it would seek measures that bring health insurance within the financial reach of the industry while addressing portability, or the need for coverage to follow employees from job to job. With that arrangement, a staffer who moved from one restaurant employer to another would not lose protection.
The NRA also formally approved the policy it espoused in June, of urging the development of renewable fuel sources that won’t drive up food costs. After President Bush in his 2007 State of the Union address called for stepped-up ethanol production, additional supplies of corn were diverted to the manufacture of the biofuel. The cost of animal feed and foods made from corn quickly skyrocketed, driving up the cost of restaurant supplies. Some pundits expect that dynamic to continue to squeeze restaurant margins during 2008.
The NRA also repeated its preference for fostering the use of such petroleum alternatives as recovered restaurant-fryer oil.
The NRA’s policy measures appear to be part of a new activism for the association, which has frequently channeled its marketing might into opposing detrimental legislation instead of promoting government action. The board meeting was followed by the NRA’s annual Public Affairs Conference, which gathers rank-and-file restaurateurs for a grassroots lobbying blitz of Capitol Hill.
This year, the NRA’s lobbyists asked attendees to focus on three policy matters: promoting food-safety regulation, pushing for immigration reform legislation, and asking for passage of a bill that would permanently shorten the depreciation schedules for restaurant construction or renovation to 15 years.
In the past, the NRA often would give attendees a primer on lobbying against any number of matters, from minimum-wage hikes to health care mandates.
The apparent shift is consistent with the tack many state restaurant associations have taken in the face of mounting political pressure to address major social issues, such as health care. The California Restaurant Association, for instance, recently called for a 1-percent statewide sales tax to fund health care reform within the state. The surprising move came as California was considering payroll taxes as an alternative funding mechanism.
During the Public Affairs Conference, NRA lobbyist Mike Shutley noted that more than 1,400 bills have been introduced at the state and local level to deal with illegal immigration.
Before the board voted in favor of promoting aquaculture through stepped-up federal regulation, an official cited the state of seafood supplies worldwide. Many wild species are in short supply because of heightened demand and depleted stocks. Meanwhile, some farm-raised Chinese imports, including shrimp, are being turned away by U.S. authorities because of concerns about chemical residues.