How ISSA Advocacy is delivering results that really matter.

This is my second year attending the ISSA Clean Advocacy event in Washington, D.C., and I can tell you that something is building. The energy keeps growing, and the level of engagement from everyone involved—our members and policymakers on Capitol Hill—continues to grow in ways I find genuinely encouraging.

When I talk about engagement, I mean it from both sides. Our ISSA members show up with passion. They are ready to speak about what is really happening in their businesses. And the folks on the Hill are starting to listen in a different way. Some of them said, “Oh, I remember you guys came last year.” That continuity matters. It’s the drip, drip effect—the more we show up, the more they understand who we are and what our industry represents.

Making it personal

One moment that stood out to me this year was when we shared the statistic that one in four people in the United States touch cleaning as part of their job. You could see the reaction in the room—people sitting up, leaning in. And then something interesting happened. Almost every staffer we talked with said something like, “Oh, I cleaned when I was in college” or “I clean my own house.” That personal connection opened doors. It made the conversation feel real, not abstract.

We also talked about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Safer Choice program, and I noticed something there, too. Many of the staffers we met with are younger, and they carry a genuine awareness about the health implications of the products they use. When we tied Safer Choice to that—to young children, to healthy homes—you could see them make the connection. That’s advocacy working the way it should.

Bipartisan ground

I’ll admit I was a little surprised by something else. Given everything we see on the news, I expected more friction. But many of the issues we brought to the Hill—workforce development, the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), support for apprenticeships—found agreement on both sides of the aisle.

That felt good. People don’t feel great about what’s happening in Washington right now, and to be there and see genuine bipartisan interest in our issues was a reminder that this work is worth doing.

The results are real

Some people wonder whether a trip to Washington actually changes anything back home. I want to be direct: It does. Some of the things we talked about last year have already come to fruition.

The expansion of 529 funds for apprenticeships is one example—that happened in large part because of the work we did on the Hill. The WOTC credit, which my own company uses and which can be worth anywhere from US$40,000 to $90,000 a year, depending on your workforce, is another issue we are actively pushing to expand. And Safer Choice, the chemical manufacturers in our industry, have invested significantly to earn that designation, and we are fighting to protect it.

Yes, policy takes time. Someone mentioned to us that the average timeline from idea to outcome can stretch to 13 years.

But we are pursuing things that can move faster than that, and we are already seeing proof of it.

Come next year

Every first-timer I talked with afterward said the same thing: “I understand now why we do this, and I’ll be back.” That was the universal reaction. People came away feeling like they had done something meaningful, not just for their own businesses, but for an entire industry.

If you were not there this year, I am personally extending the invitation to join us next year. Bring your young employees. Let them see what it looks like when an industry takes its seat at the table. Because if we are not in that room, someone else is making the decisions, and they are making them without our voice.

Next year’s summit is set to take place April 12-13, 2027 at the Royal Sonesta Washington, D.C. Capitol Hill.