HPBA Government Affairs Update: July 2026
- FEATURED INTERVIEW
HPBA Government Affairs Update: July 2026
Featuring Jason Tolleson
With Tim Reed
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Listen to the audio version.
Tim Reed: Joining me once again is the senior director of government affairs with the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association—I’m here today with Jason Tolleson. Jason, there’s been a lot that’s happened since we talked last month. I know I’ve been on the road, and I’m sure you’ve been on the road some. But jumping right into it: I’ve been seeing photos from the HPBA fly-in that just happened in Washington, D.C., and I feel like we have to start there.
Jason Tolleson: That’s the highlight right now of everything. I’m still coming off the high of that event. It was tremendous to see our members in action: to go from our seasoned vets coming up to Congress, to our Government Affairs Leadership Academy participants having this be their first time ever doing something like this, meeting with members of Congress, senators, or their staff. There’s just so much energy and enthusiasm coming out of the event. And you would know—you’ve done this in the past. And then to see that evolution continue and move forward into these offices—it’s just such a tremendous high coming out of it.
TR: That’s awesome. Can you give a little bit of a play-by-play? How many people came in? What were the objectives? Who did you talk to?
JT: Yeah, absolutely. It coincides very nicely with GALA—the Government Affairs Leadership Academy—and the HPBA Board of Directors, who have their summer meeting, so both groups came in together for their events. Of course, the board had some activity, but let me focus on the GALA side, as many of the retailers are involved in the program—almost all the participants in GALA are retailers. They came in on Monday, and we had a mixer that evening—just a get-to-know-you. They’d seen each other in person at Expo, and we’ve done virtual sessions since then, so you could see that interaction coming in with this group. Then on Tuesday, we started with some morning briefings from our office.
Then, there was something new we did this year: On Tuesday afternoon, we took the GALA class as well as some alumni and got them on the Metro—some of them got to ride the D.C. Metro, or a subway, for the first time, which was kind of a cool experience in itself—and took them up to Capitol Hill. We actually met with the chief of staff for the fuel choice bill on the House side: Congressman Nick Langworthy. We had some time with his chief of staff, and that was a great intro. We got a policy update—here’s where the negotiations are, here’s the outreach to the offices—but we also learned what it’s like to work for a member of Congress. We asked, “How did you get the job?” And I loved his response: “I got an email and a Zoom interview. That was it.” And then the rest is history, as he worked through the ranks in his time on Capitol Hill. So our GALA folks got that real-life story—and also found out that staff is just super accessible. They’re just people like you and I; they just have a different role. Our folks are retailers selling wood stoves or gas fireplaces, and this guy writes policy for a congressman. But we’re all very similar in our stories and backgrounds.
So GALA got to experience that very quickly—we were there for about an hour on the Hill—and it gave them a little bit of a sneak preview of what they were going to experience the next day. Again, it was a good combination of the HPBA board, the current GALA class, some of the alumni, and our affiliate executive directors—we had four of them on site as well. That was our group going in, with the big day of Wednesday being the lobby day itself.
TR: Wow. So you got to meet with the chief of staff of the representative who proposed this fuel choice bill. What was that like?
JT: Correct. What was great, as someone who’s worked with this GALA class for a few months now, was watching them ask their questions at the end. I can think of one of our GALA participants from California in particular: “Okay, back to this provision in the bill,” or “Back to how this is interpreted in California and the things I’m dealing with.” It was such a cool moment to watch them make that connection and ask very sophisticated policy questions of the chief of staff, knowing that this is probably the office’s primary legislative objective for the year.
What was also really great to hear—selfishly, a little bit, working on behalf of HPBA in this space—was the recognition the chief of staff and Congressman Langworthy’s office paid to HPBA, the affiliate members, and our retailers for driving co-sponsorship. If you recall, this bill was introduced June 4, 2025, and it started with 39 co-sponsors. By the time they got through the House committee and wrapped things up at that level of work, there were 157 co-sponsors. So to have that tremendous growth—and then to be called out by this office, thanking the efforts of our membership for reaching out to their congressional members to get them to sign on as co-sponsors, and now moving forward with the next ask in all of this—is fantastic. It was great to see the engagement, but also the recognition for the efforts of the industry.
TR: Yeah, that’s great. So you have all these people descending on Capitol Hill for this few-day period. How many meetings did they have? What did the rest of the meetings cover across the board?
We wrapped up with 52 meetings in less than eight hours.
JT: We wrapped up with 52 meetings in less than eight hours. If you break that across all of our groups—we had a Northeast group, we had a Texas group, based on the turnout we had—and turned them loose, I think we had the potential to meet with 38 Senate offices, and we met with 32 of them, and several of those were with the senators themselves.
One group actually had the very, very unique experience of meeting their senator over in the Capitol instead of just the Senate office building. A fun fact to share: Most of these senators will have what they call a hideaway office—a special office in the Capitol building itself, which saves them time from having to go back and forth for these meetings. So one of our groups not only met with this senator in person last year, but this year they got to meet in his kind of secret, private hideaway office in the Senate itself. Other members got to go up into the gallery and watch some of the House and Senate debate. So we had some really cool experiences.
To compare it a little bit to last year, we had a lot more planned, which was fantastic to know going in. Some groups had five or six meetings; some had seven or eight. A lot of our groups got what I called the trifecta, where they met with both Senate offices and their member on the House side as well—most, if not all, of the groups had the trifecta. We had a group from New Hampshire—I guess I’d call it the quadfecta—where they met with both Senate offices and both House offices for the two districts in New Hampshire. And I know the GALA participant from New Hampshire, a retailer up there, walked away with such a high—when we debriefed on Wednesday night, he was still smiling cheek to cheek at what a cool experience it was.
TR: Yeah, that’s really neat. So what specifically were they covering in these meetings? Was it all fuel choice, or was it an introduction to our industry?
JT: A little of all of the above. It was great to help prep them with that introduction—something as simple as “Hi, my name is so-and-so. I have a hearth retail shop in your district, and we employ X amount of people.” That’s something we work on in GALA all the time, just giving that introduction. Then, our primary issue was definitely the fuel choice bill, as that’s front and center in both the House and Senate right now. There’s a lot of debate out there about energy costs, affordability, and the resiliency of the energy system—the grid. So that was our primary ask. On the House side it was, “Hey, let’s get this thing to a floor vote. I know we’ve been talking about it for a while. We’ve narrowed down some of the points of concern from some of the opponents.” And on the Senate side it was, “We’ve just got to get this thing to a hearing. There’s a lot of momentum on this issue. There’s a lot of momentum around appliance efficiency standards. Can we link these two up, get this to a hearing, and see what that language looks like?” So that was the primary ask on both the House and the Senate side.
And then, because a good chunk of our business is in that solid-fuel space—wood stoves and pellet stoves—we were just making these Hill offices aware of the current standing of things at the EPA. We’ll see our draft rule, hopefully, by the end of the year. So we just wanted to let our friends on the Hill know: Stay tuned. We’ll get back to you as soon as we see what that looks like from the EPA.
TR: Now, that takes me to where I wanted to go next. I was recently in Wisconsin for the North Central HPBA conference. It was an amazing conference with huge attendance, and I was really encouraged by it in general. But while I was there, Joe Burns was talking about some of the work being done with the EPA. I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but the impression I get is cautiously optimistic. How do you feel like things are going with the EPA regarding the NSPS?
JT: Yeah, it’s great: I had a chat with Joe right before he went to that event and shared that same messaging. Right now, we’ve had some great engagement and positive interactions with the agency—from the staff who handle the test-development conversation, to some of the work on the enforcement and compliance side, to the director levels that sit in either Washington, D.C., or at their research facility down in North Carolina, all the way up to the administrator. There’s definitely a great level of accessibility and a positive conversation. I still think there’s uncertainty about what the regulation is going to look like, the proposed NSPS. But as an industry, I think we’ve collectively gone in—either as HPBA or as some direct members on some direct issues—and had a fair opportunity to present our case.
As we look to the next rule, of course they have to make sure they do all their due diligence; they go through the different sections of the last version. And we’ve had some opportunities to say, “This works,” or “Maybe this portion could be left alone,” or “This is an area we really need to focus on.” So I would say these engagements continue to be very positive. And moreover, there are offices up on the Hill who have been very inquisitive: How are things going? What can we do to help? Do you have any concerns? What’s the status of certificates? So to have it on both sides—positive engagement at the EPA, as well as knowing we’ve got some stakeholders on the Hill who are very interested to see how this plays out, knowing there are manufacturers in their districts or large retailers—that level of support is definitely appreciated.
TR: That’s incredible. Now, going back to fuel choice: I know there’s a lot of conversation about it in D.C. Is there an update as to when that might hit the House floor for a vote?
JT: Right now it’s on the Union Calendar—and I love that some of our GALA participants asked me, “What is the Union Calendar? What does that mean?” It’s basically on the docket: It can be pulled up to the House floor at any time. It will still have to go to the Rules Committee, and in the Rules Committee they’ll decide—the Republicans will get to debate it for an hour, the Democrats will have an hour, this is how many amendments can be proposed. That’s kind of the gatekeeper of legislative activity before it gets to the House floor. So being on the Union Calendar, it can happen at any time.
Advocacy doesn’t just stop and start in Washington, D.C.
What I believe is happening behind the scenes—and in the updates we’ve received—is still pointing out these moments of concern, some policy issues that some have expressed, either from the Republican side or the Democrat side. I’ll tell you one thing that’s for certain: Everyone realizes just how slim the majority is right now in the House. Republicans do have the majority, but there are, I believe, four vacancies still out there. And when you have members of Congress missing a week because they’re out sick—which does happen—votes are impacted. With the majority being as slim as it is, I think they want to make sure everything is set before getting it to the floor. So, subject to that, at any point it could come up.
I think we just need to continue to focus on these few points—or members—that pop up. I call it whack-a-mole: All right, this person has a concern—let’s go address it. Okay, then go to the next one. The sooner we can work through more of those, the better, because once you get closer to the election, the calendar gets really difficult.
TR: Yeah, I hear that. Let’s round out with this: I’d love to hear how the Government Affairs Leadership Academy is going, just generally speaking. We’re sitting here at the end of June as we record this, and you had the new cohort that launched in March. How’s the new year going?
JT: It’s going really well. It’s great to see how they’ve grown from meeting them for the first time in person in March, to our two virtual sessions since then. In April we talked about the process: how an idea becomes a legislative text, moves through the whole process of committee hearings and floor votes, and ultimately becomes a law. So we focused on that in April to understand the process. And in May, we really drilled into the people aspect: What’s a great way to develop this relationship with a member of Congress? How do you go in and share that narrative in 20 minutes or less? And then, that took us right into the June event—the timing worked really well to have them set for the fly-in. And again, to see the engagement and the questions they were asking—it all worked out really well.
Going through the rest of the year, we’ll have a session soon on codes and standards—it gets a little more into the technical element—then pivot into the leadership discussion in the latter half of this year. So again, we started up on this ramp-up and this high to get to the fly-in, and as I told them, the most important thing coming out of this is taking it back to their home state, their home affiliate—because advocacy doesn’t just stop and start in Washington, D.C. Knowing that our affiliates are doing these lobby days and these outreach efforts, all these tools can transfer into those next steps. So it didn’t stop on June 24, when we were done on Capitol Hill. This is an evolution. And then to see our alumni come back—a huge shout-out to those who made the return trip; there were eight of them—and to see their level of support as well, seeing that this is a continuous process of lobbying and advocating, really helped out. So tremendous support from them, as well as from our executive directors who participated.
TR: Yeah, that’s great. Is there anything else we should be thinking about or in the loop on—from a national perspective, or even regionally—that we need to be paying attention to?
JT: I’ll start with the federal side. Congress will be in for a few weeks in July, and we’ll have some additional follow-ups. As a matter of fact, right before we recorded this podcast, I was on a Teams meeting with a Hill staffer from Texas who had some additional questions coming out of that meeting. So we’ll do a lot of follow-up from the fly-in. In August, Congress is out of session. They’ll come back in September and probably do some quick work before everyone gets ready for the November election. Then we’ll really see where things fall into place as far as who has which house and if anything flips around. So that’s how I think the federal side will play out.
On the state side, most states are done for the year. So now it’s really: What narrative do we want to bring into the beginning of next year? When will states start to pre-file their bills? There are a few states that are still in session the full year, including California, Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts. Those stay in session year-round, so we’ll continue to watch those closely, working with our affiliates. So that’s how the calendar will play out. And of course, right in the middle of the fall, I’ll be posting the application window we’ll be opening for the Government Affairs Leadership Academy class of 2027–2028. So the fall will be pretty busy.
TR: Awesome. And again, just a shout-out for anyone who’s on the fence about this: When I did the Government Affairs Academy—this was back before it was the Leadership Academy—it was really impactful in a lot of ways, and it helped shape a lot of things for myself and my career that have developed. So it’s definitely something people need to be paying attention to. Jason, this has been awesome, man. Thanks a ton for all the work you’re doing, and I’m super excited to hear what comes next on this national fuel choice bill.
JT: Excellent. Thanks again. Look forward to chatting with you next month.
