At the request of Representative Lee Zeldin (R-NY) on behalf of his constituent The Long Island Beauty School, AACS President Christine Gordon, AACS Executive Vice President Anthony Civitano and active AACS Associate Member Kim Schottler, conducted a series of Capitol Hill meetings on Monday with top-level staff in the Republican Leadership.  Following a pre-brief with Rep. Zeldin's  office, three meetings were held with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan's office, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise's office, and the House Education and Workforce Committee office under the leadership of Full Committee Chairman John Kline and Postsecondary Subcommittee Chair Virginia Foxx.  

 

These vitally important meetings provided AACS with yet another opportunity to share with House Leadership the urgency surrounding the need for reform/relief from the pending implementation of the GE regulations, the impact the regulations would have on over 4,000 salons and 1,200 franchisees within the Great Clips organization (and broader beauty and wellness community), and need for their assistance in helping to ensure that legislation to either delay or modify the regulations is enacted before the anticipated release of final debt-to-earnings metrics at the end of 2016 or early 2017.

 

Above all else, AACS' representatives expressed the willingness to consider various alternatives, shared with them several of our concept proposals and made it very clear that we are malleable and willing to work toward a solution. All of the offices were aware of the unique characteristics of our community, commended us for working through the House Education and the Workforce and Senate HELP Committee on various alternatives. They commended us for our grass-roots efforts to educate Congress on the issue and the need for compromise, urged us to continue to call upon the membership to contact their elected officials in seeking support for a rider in the pending appropriations bill in the near term, and committed to continuing to work with AACS on enactment of a viable alternative this year.