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Policy Priorities

Group meeting in a coffee shop, sitting around talking.
Group meeting in a coffee shop, sitting around talking.

The ACMA Policies

As the voice of direct and remote marketers and suppliers, ACMA is dedicated to making sure that public policy reflects the interests of our industry. We advocate directly with members of Congress, state legislatures and regulatory bodies to protect and advance the interests of our members.

Current Policy Priorities Include

ACMA supports legislative efforts to curb rate increases and strengthen the Postal Regulatory Commission’s Oversight Authority.
Although Congress passed the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 (PSRA), which provides the USPS with substantial financial relief from the prefunding obligation for retiree healthcare benefits and the liability for missed payments, crucial language from earlier versions of the bill requiring the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to review the expanded cap for postage rates it approved in early 2020 was not included. ACMA played a major role in getting PSRA into law; however, we’re hard at work in getting a follow-up bill to solve the following problems:
  • While the USPS has benefitted enormously from the legislation, it has not resulted in any mitigation of rate increases for mailers, namely, biannual rate increases with an enormous compounding impact. And the Postal Service intends to pursue what the Postmaster General has described as “uncomfortable increases” for mailers despite the legislation. Postage is up 42% to 44% in three years, well above inflation, causing “rate shock” and pushing more volume out of the system creating an unsustainable “death spiral” for mail.
  • ACMA held top-level meetings with USPS and PRC officials in fall 2023 to better convince both that biannual rate increases will only drive catalog/direct mailers away from the mail – a lose-lose for all involved.
  • ACMA is keeping pressure on Congress to take note of the USPS’s faltering Delivering for America plan, whose foundation is based on frequent rate hikes. The plan is heavily skewed toward building greater package volume to the USPS, but with inevitable decreases in mail volumes, which generally drive package volumes, the plan will backfire.
  • The USPS DFA plan has over $30 billion of “self help” or cost reductions but so far, no details have been announced as to how this is to occur.
  • DFA is also significantly behind its stated financial targets leading some to conclude the plan is doomed.

Remote Sales Tax – ACMA supports a federal bill that would reduce the burden of sales tax compliance for business owners and stimulates a single national economy and growth under the Commerce Clause. Re-affirm longstanding federal law, P.L. 86-272, which protects sellers of tangible personal property from imposition of income taxes outside its home state(s).

In a post-South Dakota v. Wayfair tax world, businesses lack the certainty and standardizations to operate efficiently and effectively. States have consistently taken liberties to expand their tax compliance demands knowing that many small businesses do not have the necessary resources to comply or fight them in state legislatures or courts. The burdens in both time and money are enormous, and day-to-day operations are suffering when attempting to comply.
  • Remote merchants are having to track and comply with almost 12,000 different tax jurisdictions across the US.
  • State level departments of revenue are using the Wayfair decision to expand tax and regulatory burdens of all types on businesses outside their jurisdiction
  • The Supreme Court allowed for the establishment of thresholds to determine if a remote seller has surpassed a de minimis level of economic activity to create economic nexus or a significant relationship with a taxing authority:
  • The factors that contribute to the thresholds vary amongst the states.
  • They include differing revenue types and amounts, transaction counts, reporting requirements and measurement periods.
  • The default status of all transactions is retail, necessitating an exemption certificate for each non-taxable transaction. Exemption certificate requirements vary state by state as well.
  • Changes to requirements vary frequently, often with only short notice or no notice at all to affected businesses
It is imperative that Congress act in the interest of businesses, their employees, and consumers to set national standardizations around these issues. Each of the following solutions would save countless hours and dollars in costs to comply and encourage full compliance. These may even help ensure that such businesses will be around for the future as sales tax have been sighted as the primary reason for several ACMA member companies’ failures or bankruptcies in recent years. Importantly, greatly simplifying compliance will also drive state tax revenues as more companies come into full compliance.
  • Reinforce the limitation in Public Law 86-272 on a state’s right to impose income or another direct tax on a seller who does not engage in any activities in a state other than the solicitation of sales.
  • Expand the protections of the federal law to other business activity taxes such as gross receipts, franchise, privilege, or income taxes.
  • An agreement by the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board (SST), a sales tax regulatory body recognized by its 24 member states, forces member states to adopt specific practices that make compliance within its membership uniform.
  • The International Fuel Tax Agreement set a precedent whereby businesses could report to a single location. Allow each business to report all sales tax collections to a single entity and have the funds apportioned out to accordingly.
  • Prevent any states from requiring remote sellers to retroactively collect and remit sales taxes prior to Wayfair. Make new requirements effective only after adequate notice to all parties with sufficient time to implement new requirements.
  • Allow for the creation of a central clearing house or expand the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board’s (SST) role to include that of a clearing house; codify federal protections for remote sellers into statute.
  • Like Texas has recently enacted, allow remote sellers to collect a single “average” sales tax rate for each state, which will...
  • Reduce the jurisdiction count from 12,000 to fewer than 60.
  • Eliminate the need for costly software with the difficulty of integrating it into legacy systems.
  • Establish common definitions: create a single, remote seller item code that is standard across all taxable goods.
  • Define a standard collection and reporting threshold determined by retail sales volume; eliminate transaction counts.
  • Specify a minimum notice period for changes to sales tax requirements.
ACMA supports legislative proposals that reduce compliance burdens for small businesses while strengthening consumer data protection. To facilitate interstate commerce, a single national solution, not 50 different approaches, will result in better privacy protections, while establishing a clear set of guidelines as to what is expected from businesses. It would also be easier for consumers to understand their privacy rights in a clear, simple manner.

Why consumer Privacy Laws & Regulations are critical to ACMA member businesses:

  • To enable them to remember customers’ order and other transaction data and PII (personally identifiable information) to facilitate direct transactions, all of which customers expect.
  • Remote selling merchants in particular hold the trust and confidence of their customers paramount and will not do anything that may damage that trust.
  • Since 2018, 39 states have passed or introduced 130 privacy bills regulating the commercial collection and use of personal data. This patchwork of state laws has resulted in significant compliance costs and regulatory burdens for businesses – especially those that operate across multiple states.
We support federal legislation that addresses the following:
  • Express preemption of state laws: Federal legislation can create much-needed standardization if it provides remote merchants one clear standard, as opposed to a myriad of conflicting state laws.
  • No right of private action: An onslaught of often meritless individual lawsuits would cripple e-commerce, catalog/direct and other remote merchants. Allowing the FTC or another agency to serve as the gatekeeper will steer attention toward holding bad actors accountable and not punishing good businesses.
  • Right to cure: In the absence of gross negligence or intentional fraud, remote merchants and service providers should be given a reasonable right to cure reported deficiencies before incurring financial or other penalties.
  • Disclosure-based regulation: Federal legislation should provide clear guidelines on how businesses are to inform consumers of their rights in their privacy policies. To require express prior consumer consent would be detrimental to both businesses and consumers, as well as the technologically infeasible, potentially decimating the remote sales industry.
Fueled by member support, ACMA has accomplishment the following policy priorities and continues work to maintain and advance them.
Why consumer privacy protections are critical to ACMA member businesses:
  • Material catalyst and industry leader in successful passage of postal reform legislation that removes legacy costs, reduces retiree healthcare costs, requires increased transparency on service quality, calls for a review of cost attribution rules, and investigates runaway flats cost growth.
  • Defeated a retroactive Massachusetts “Cookie Nexis” law seeking back sales tax payments to 2017.
  • Challenged a California initiative to force all companies selling into the Golden State to file CA income taxes, a contagion ready to spread to New York then to all 50 states with the cost of filings, audits, assessments and penalties it brings to remote sellers across the country.
  • Triggered a 2022 Senate hearing on the sales tax collection morass and subsequent regulatory and taxing liabilities it engenders; caused ACMA CEO to be included as a witness.
  • Secured a senate sponsor ready to introduce clarifying national legislation establishing a common sales tax collection framework while baring states from using economic nexus concepts to levy other tax and regulatory burdens on your business.
  • Helped advance a national privacy bill simplifying compliance burdens, forestalling the right of private action, providing the right to cure when unintentional lapses occur, and taking prior consumer consent off the table.
Capitol building photo, taken at night.

Catalog Industry Action Funds

Price range: $100.00 through $250.00

Support ACMA’s Industry Action Funds

You can assist with specific areas of ACMA’s program of work by providing much-needed resources dedicated to a particular issue. Our Industry Action Funds are segregated accounts held by ACMA, made available as a “war chest” to deploy on specific issues that impact direct and remote marketers and their suppliers — eliminating the time and effort needed to raise funds in the heat of battle.

Please note that your contributions to ACMA Action Funds will not be used for any general ACMA “corporate purposes” other than a 5% service fee on funds raised and administered. Non-ACMA members are always eligible to make one-off donations. Such contributions support our network of consultants on whom we depend to advocate for the interests of direct and remote marketers and their suppliers. These funds are only used to pay for out-of-pocket expenses of the specific issues outlined below. Large volume donors may be considered for Steering Committees of each Fund. Click here for more information on how the funds are distributed and used.

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Description

Restricted Status: Each Fund will be separately administered as restricted under the direction of the ACMA Board of Directors by the ACMA Treasurer and our association accountant. An elected Officer from the Executive Committee or the ACMA Board will authorize disbursements. Details on expenditures will be made available to any material contributor on request. Restricted funds may be released only upon authorization of the benefactor or in the event the contributing entity is defunct, by vote of the ACMA Board.

Use of Funds: Moneys from each fund may be used for hiring lobbyists, economists, attorneys, consultants, public relations or government relations personnel, conducting research or other surveys highlighting positions favorable to cataloging, supporting coalitions or other groups allied to our positions, paying for advertising aimed at influencing elected officials or other stakeholders, organizing grass roots outreach, education or advocacy in support of public policy positions or for other tactics favorable to ACMA policy positions. Money raised will not be used to support any political candidate or political party; these moneys must come from a Political Action Committee.

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Lynn Noble

President & Executive Director

New Member Development & Acquisition; Postal Affairs

Lynn Noble is ACMA’s Vice President, Industry Relations, having joined the ACMA in May 2015, following an extensive direct marketing career in private industry as well as the US Postal Service. He is responsible for leading the membership development efforts for the ACMA through new member acquisitions and providing enhanced member value.

Throughout his career, Lynn has held key marketing & sales positions with several leading direct marketers, as well as several high-level management positions with the US Postal Service.

In 2009, at the request of the ACMA, the US Postal Service initiated a new position of Catalog Manager to lead the Service’s efforts to stabilize and grow the catalog industry. Lynn returned to the USPS to lead those efforts and was instrumental to developing a stronger industry partnership between the Postal Service and the catalog industry. Serving as the product manager for catalogs, Lynn helped to raise the awareness of catalog-specific business challenges within the executive ranks of the USPS. During his tenure, the ACMA and catalog companies enjoyed a collaborative and progressive environment that produced more stabilized rates and inclusion in key USPS promotional opportunities.

Just prior to joining the ACMA Lynn was the USPS’s Manager, Strategic Account Operations, leading a team of senior sales professionals who focused exclusively in the Catalog, Mail Order, and E-commerce arena. In addition to his Postal positions, Lynn previously held key positions with leading direct marketing companies, including Cox Target Media, Market Logic, Catalina Marketing, Freesamples.com, and Advantage Direct.

Paul Miller

Vice President & Deputy Director

Association Matters, Marketing / Communications, Membership Relations

Named Vice President & Deputy Director in January 2010, Miller came to the ACMA following a lengthy career of more than two decades following the catalog/multichannel/e-commerce/retail businesses. Reporting to ACMA president & executive director Hamilton Davison, Miller oversees marketing and communications, membership development, and organizes and oversees ACMA’s National Catalog Forum, while working with Davison on most of ACMA’s postal-related efforts.

Miller started his career as a reporter with Catalog Showroom Business, following a form of retailing that was led by the likes of the Service Merchandise and Best Products retail chains.

After several years of editor/reporter roles with business magazines that followed the toy and gift industries, Miller was named associate editor of Catalog Age magazine (now Multichannel Merchant) in 1986. He rose up the ranks at Catalog Age over the next 18 years to be the magazine’s senior news editor.

Beginning in the late ’80s, Miller became Catalog Age’s postal beat reporter, where he’d follow key postal events and pull out the key catalog mail-related issues for readers. During that time, he attended many Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) meetings and National Postal forums.

After leaving Catalog Age in 2004, Miller consulted with several catalogers and multichannel suppliers for a time, he was named news/website editor at Commercial Property News. Less than a year later, he was asked to take the reigns at Catalog Success (now All About ROI) where he served as editor-in- chief from 2006 till the end of 2009.

 

Mike Plunkett

President & Executive Director

Washington, legislative, lobbying matters

ACMA appointed Michael K. Plunkett as its President and Executive Director in January 2024, succeeding founder Hamilton Davison. Mr. Davison moved on to own and run a company. Mr. Plunkett brings years of executive leadership experience having been the President and CEO of the Association for Postal Commerce (PostCom) since 2017.  In the newly-formed dual role, he will continue his current role with PostCom and the two organizations will operate separately.

During his tenure, PostCom has continued to lead the mailing and shipping industry on policy and regulatory matters and to work with Government agency partners to advance issues of importance to members. Mr. Plunkett is also President of the Delivery Technology Advocacy Council, a nonprofit launched in 2020 to concentrate on delivery and logistics technologies.

Prior to PostCom, Mr. Plunkett accumulated more than 25 years Postal experience with the United States Postal Service in numerous executive roles in operations, marketing, product development and pricing.  As a leader within the Postal Service’s management team, Mr. Plunkett developed a well-earned reputation for innovation by leading efforts to develop pricing agreements for domestic services and in the development of the forever stamp and the priority mail flat rate box.

Mr. Plunkett has testified on pricing and policy issues before the Postal Regulatory Commission and Congressional subcommittees.  He has authored and presented papers on postal policies, economics, and operations for National and International conferences.

Mr. Plunkett holds Masters Degrees in Business from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Sloan Fellow. He earned a Bachelor Degrees in Economics and Finance from the Pennsylvania State University.