Page 14 - NCISS Your Advocate March 2019

Why “Hit the Hill” is So Important for Your Survival

By Eddy McClain, Past President
If there is one thing that NCISS has learned in the last four decades of protecting our backsides
in Washington, it’s that if you wait until a bill is deemed life threatening to our businesses to
muster the troops and the money, it is probably too late.

Without a framework and funding for dealing with unfavorable legislation, trade associations
like NCISS are at a disadvantage if not prepared for trouble. It is critical to have a lobbyist in

place and a relationship with your legislator before the trouble starts.

Bills that can wreak havoc with our businesses can come up suddenly out of left field so having
your legislator’s support in advance is critical.

A serious problem developed in 1994 when two factions moved to close all motor vehicle

records to public access. The Senate bill died of its own weight. But a house bill by
Representative Jim Moran of Virginia gained momentum quickly. Rep. Moran was responding
to constituents who operated abortion clinics. Protesters were running doctors’ license plates
to determine their home addresses so they could picket the physicians’ homes.

It was only through having a full time lobbyist on duty in D.C. who could arrange for NCISS to
testify, that the bill was amended and the investigator-favorable Driver’s Privacy Protection
Act resulted. For the first time in history, the role of private investigators was acknowledged

in federal statute. And those records are still open today.

A classic example of legislative surprise was what happened when Congress decided to
broaden and tighten up the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which had been around since 1970, so
they enacted the Consumer Credit Reform Act of 1996.

Suddenly the FCRA didn’t just apply to credit, but encompassed employment. All
employment. The Federal Trade Commission was charged with enforcing the changes. There
were a lot of questions so the FTC began issuing “Opinion Letters” explaining the
consequences.

At first investigators and others thought this must not apply to us since we are not credit
reporting agencies. Wrong. The opinion letters started to make clear that anyone doing an
investigation for employment purposes, is one. And any employer client that took adverse
action based on our report had to cough up a copy of the report.