Recently we went down to DC for the 2025 IFA Advocacy Summit to talk to our senators and congressmen about the American Franchise Act (AFA), a singularly important bill to clarify the meaning of joint employment. In the past ten years the definition of joint employment has changed four times, causing significant damage not only to franchisees and franchisor but to the American consumer, workers, and our economy.

Joint Employment should never have been politicized, but politicians thought they might have found a way to stop the decline in private sector union membership by targeting franchising. Union opposition should not be a factor in opposing the AFA this year. The beauty of the AFA is that the day before the bill is passed and the day after it becomes law, for unions nothing has changed. I come from a union background and am myself a long-time member of the National Writers Union, which is a part of UAW local 1981 of the AFL-CIO. I stay a union member in honor of my father, who was a member of the Teamsters union. If unions have a beneficial service to sell, then workers will buy, just like with anything else in the U.S. economy.

There is not only clarity in the AFA, but common sense. As a franchisee, an independent business person makes an independent decision to invest in a branded franchised opportunity; independently chooses the brand to invest in; independently chooses how to fund their investment; and ultimately independently owns, manages and operates their business while independently hiring, compensating and setting human resource policies for their employees. Nowhere in that independence did the setting of brand standards by a franchisor – a requirement of every licensor under the 1947 Federal Lanham Act – could you shoehorn a franchisor into a co-employer without twisting the common-sense definition of joint employment as prior administrations attempted to do over the past decade. All the AFA does is remind Congress that the law they passed in 1947, which gave franchisors the ability to license their intellectual property without the risk of joint employment, is still absolutely common sense today.

This year’s Hill visits were easy compared to the past, because the IFA’s Government Relations team achieved a single issue piece of legislation that is easy to explain. The AFA is such a common-sense bill that we went into our meetings with seven (7) Republicans and seven (7) Democrats sponsoring it.

My group visited with the Congressional staff from Connecticut, and Andrew’s group met with the staff of the Senators and Congresspeople in Pennsylvania. Remarkably, in a dark blue state like Connecticut, one of the congressional staff members, whose boss never supports anything perceived to be beneficial to business, concluded that his boss would want to join as a co-sponsor, because of the benefits that will flow to workers in my state. I am hopeful that we turned a major corner and the Congressman will see it the same way. Legislative staff from Senator McCormick’s office (R-PA) came to the meeting with advanced knowledge of the franchise business model and expressed what seemed like legitimate interest in helping to move the bill forward in the Senate.

While we gathered in DC for political reasons, we held committee meetings, educational sessions, and the IFA’s board of directors met. I was pleased to be reelected to another three year (3) term on the IFA board and at the end of this term I will have served for over nineteen years (19) years, with a portion of that time on its executive committee, making me the longest serving board member in the history of the association. We also kicked off another year for the IFA’s Franchise Ascension Initiative, for which Andrew is serving as a mentor this year.

I have attended every IFA Advocacy Summit since they were initiated by Admiral Bernie Browning decades ago – not only because they are important to franchising, but also because they are the best networking event in the IFA’s calendar year. There were lots of new people in DC this year. Tiktok was a sponsor, as was Google that hosted a party at their DC offices.

If you have never attended the Advocacy meetings in DC, you are not coming close to maximizing the benefit of IFA membership – and you should come next year. Not only will your voice benefit franchising, but you and your company will benefit from the networking that takes place. The program the IFA team scripted was a spectacular success this year, and while the members donate their time, we all gain as much as we give.

The franchise model empowers entrepreneurs, strengthens local economies, and creates opportunity. To learn more about the American Franchise Act, visit: https://www.franchise.org/2025/09/ifa-applauds-introduction-of-landmark-american-franchise-act/

Michael Seid, Managing Director
MSA Worldwide