The 2024 campaign is barreling towards election day. Here are four issues where what happens at the ballot box in November will impact the industry in 2025 and beyond.

💸 Tax reform 

Taxes will be the issue on Capitol Hill in 2025. With much of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act set to expire next year, the stage is set for a tax reform battle. Experts say that keeping these popular tax breaks will cost the country $4.6 trillion, and political pressure inside the Beltway is building to offset at least part of amount. What does that mean? Everything in the tax code is on the table.

This includes raising corporate tax rates, changing how private equity profits are taxed, or even taxing association events. Any of these could have a significant impact on our industry. What’s more, some of these proposals cross traditional political party lines. Some Republican lawmakers support increasing corporate rates, while a few Democrats are wary of targeting private equity. That’s why ECA will be “all in” on tax reform in 2025. Regardless of who controls the White House and Congress, we will ensure that the industry’s voice is heard during this critical debate.

🌎 International travel

Nearly three years after post-pandemic international travel resumed, our industry is still unable to fully welcome all international exhibitors and attendees back to the U.S. Why? Ongoing visa delays. While ECA helped secure $50 million for the State Department in March for visa backlogs, it still takes more than one year to get a first-time visa interview in Mexico, India, and elsewhere.

Unfortunately, neither party has a good track record here. While many accused the Trump administration of hollowing out the State Department, the Biden administration has been far too slow in restoring visa processing times to pre-pandemic levels. In 2025, ECA will be calling on Congress to break the bipartisan deadlock on visitor visa reforms to ensure delays like this never happen again.

👷 Future workforce

There is bipartisan consensus in Washington, DC that the government must do more to help build America’s next-generation skilled workforce. ECA supports legislation that would allow (a) Pell Grants to be used for high-quality, shorter-term job training programs and (b) 529 savings plans to cover the costs of workforce training and credentialing programs like third-party certifications.

Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle want to send workforce development legislation to President Biden for his signature by the end of 2024. If they are unsuccessful, ECA will push for Congress to act in 2025 to help close the skills gap and provide workers with the job training and credentials they need to secure in-demand, good-paying jobs in our industry.

♻️ Sustainability

Vice President Harris and Former President Trump have very different sustainability agendas. While Harris and the Democrats want new decarbonization legislation and bigger role for Washington, DC regulators, Trump and the Republicans propose greater federal deregulation.

But a Trump victory wouldn’t end the government’s role in the green transition. Rather it would merely shift policymaking to the state and local level in big industry markets like California, Illinois, and New York. We have already seen this with the new California zero-emission forklift regulation, which will phase out large spark-ignition engine forklifts between 2026 and 2038. That’s why industry stakeholders need to accelerate their decarbonization efforts to stay ahead of new government regulations (at any level) and maintain control of their path to net zero.