National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors Opens Legal Policy Center
In what it describes as a “groundbreaking” move for the wholesale distribution industry, the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) has opened the NAW Legal Policy Center (LPC), which will pursue litigation and advocate for a regulatory environment in support of business innovation and economic growth.
“Our member companies are focused on keeping the supply chain moving and rely on us to have their backs,” noted Eric Hoplin, president and CEO of Washington, D.C.-based NAW. “With Congress mired in ineffective gridlock, policymaking is increasingly shaped by the emboldened executive and judicial branches who don’t have business interests in mind. The Legal Policy Center enables NAW to expand on our policy leadership and aggressively defend the American supply chain against activist regulators.”
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Karen Harned, president of Harned Strategies LLC, was named director of litigation and legal policy for the LPC. Harned brings to her new role more than 27 years of experience in legal policy and public affairs. For more than two decades, she was executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business’ (NFIB) Small Business Legal Center, which she built from scratch. Under her guidance, NFIB successfully led two precedent-setting cases before the U.S. Supreme Court: NFIB v. Sebelius, which challenged the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, and NFIB v. DOL, which contested the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate.
The center will leverage proven legal strategies that have effectively shaped policy in Congress: coalition building, innovative thinking and a solid commitment to free-market capitalism.
“The policy battlefield has shifted in recent years,” said Brian Wild, NAW’s chief government affairs officer. “As the leading trade association for the supply chain, NAW must engage where policy is made. The center is particularly dedicated to supporting small businesses, who often lack the time and resources to continuously contest federal regulations while they focus on running their operations, creating jobs and serving their communities.”
Issues on which the LPC has already taken action include the SEC Climate-Risk Disclosure Rule, the Department of Labor Overtime Rule, OSHA’s Worker Walkaround Rule and the FTC noncompete ban, all of which disproportionately affect small businesses grappling with inflation and burdensome regulations, according to the trade group.
NAW represents the $8 trillion wholesale distribution industry, which employs more than 6 million workers throughout the United States, accounting for approximately one-third of the U.S. GDP.
