ASTA’s Jessica Klement on Legislative Day: “Silence Equals Acceptance”

There may be no event as important for travel advisors, whether they are ASTA members or not, as Legislative Day, the annual gathering in Washington, D.C.

Legislative Day, which will be held from Oct. 6-8 this year, is the chance for advisors to advocate on behalf of their profession to lawmakers, who can very easily, and sometimes without even realizing it, do great harm or good to travel advisors and agencies across the country.

To prevent this, ASTA’s advocacy arm brings members to Washington, D.C. each year to meet with their members of Congress face-to-face and discuss the issues impacting them.

TMR spoke with ASTA’s vice president of advocacy Jessica Klement just about a month out from this year’s Legislative Day to discuss the event’s importance.

Q: This is your fourth Legislative Day with ASTA, and the second as the lead on the advocacy team. Can you talk about just how big this day is for you, for your team, and for ASTA? 

This is arguably the most significant event our advocacy team undertakes. The four weeks leading up to it are the busiest we’ll have all year, as we’re focused on preparing for the event and getting our members ready. We conduct pre-webinars so members are familiar with the issues we will take to the Hill even before they arrive in Washington, D.C. 

In my four years of experience with Legislative Day, I’ve seen that close to half of the attendees are first-timers. This is interesting because we see that 50/50 split every year with new attendees. Those first-timers are understandably nervous. It can be intimidating to walk up to the big buildings on Capitol Hill. You are going to the seats of power to advocate for yourself, and that is not something that comes naturally to everyone. However, once you get that first meeting under your belt, the nervousness disappears. 

Q: Legislative Day is different from other ASTA events, and attending can be expensive. What encourages new travel advisors to come, and what makes this event uniquely valuable for them? 

Coming to Washington, D.C. is definitely expensive; hotels are expensive, and flights are expensive. But, this is a different event than the other ASTA ones. While it provides education, you are spending a day doing something you won’t get at any other event. You are not hearing from a supplier; you are advocating for the entire travel advisor community. Two hundred advisors are advocating on behalf of 200,000 across the country. I can’t overstate just how important it is. 

Q: Each person is representing thousands of travel advisors. Isn’t that a lot of pressure? 

It is and it can be intimidating, and a lot of the first-timers do feel that. When we reach out to people who haven’t attended before, we often hear that they don’t feel capable of speaking on behalf of the industry. Those are the exact people we want in the room. Those unpolished conversations resonate with congressional staff in a way that others’ don’t. While professional lobbyists are needed, when advisors talk about what they do, it resonates differently than when I do it on their behalf. This is about giving a voice to the people who don’t even realize they’re speaking on behalf of the entire industry. 

Q: Legislative Day used to be held in June. Why did ASTA decide to move the date, and will the new date for next year be permanent? 

A lot of people ask me why we haven’t gone back to June. There is now a federal holiday during the week we used to hold the event, and that can be a crapshoot as to whether or not Congress is in session, especially if the holiday falls in the middle of the week. Congress was in recess the last two years during that time, which can diminish the experience for advisors if their members of Congress aren’t there. As a former staffer, those are usually the times when staffers take off as well, so you may not be meeting with the right people. We already have a change for next year, too. Legislative Day 2026 is scheduled for April 20th to the 22nd. 

Q: What are the most important issues this year? 

There are a number of possibilities. Last year, our two key issues were ticket refunds and also a travel advisor seat on the ATPAC board. Both of those had standalone pieces of legislation, and we were able to increase cosponsors on both. Neither bill has been reintroduced yet, so that’s still something we’re working on. We’ll have a better idea of the exact issues in a week or so. 

Q: I know a goal is to get advisors from as many states as possible to attend. Are you on pace to do that this year? 

Registration is still open, and there are some states that we are targeting. While we are working toward all 50 states, at this point, we want to get more members from states where we only have one person to make sure they get the most out of their experience. I look at states where we have two people, like Delaware, and if they’re all new, we’ll pair them with staff or a delegation that has an experienced attendee. 

As of now, nobody is registered from Alaska, Indiana, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, or West Virginia. In addition, only one person is registered from Arkansas, D.C., Hawaii, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. 

Fifty states is hard to get; we’re up against it. What’s more important to me is getting people who want to be here—people who are having problems with regulations or laws, or who want to say thank you to the legislators who helped them during the pandemic. That messaging and those personal stories are more important than the number of states, but obviously, the more offices we visit, the more impact we have. We’ve achieved 50 states once in my four years at ASTA. 

Q: What is your pitch for advisors who are reluctant to come? 

This is your opportunity to advocate on behalf of your industry. What I tell people all the time is that silence equals acceptance. If you are not going to Capitol Hill to tell people about your business and what you do, you are sending the message that their constituents are happy with their job performance. If that’s the case, I encourage them to send thank-you letters. 

If you are not advocating for yourselves, you lose the right to complain about what your elected officials are doing. This is an opportunity to talk about what you do and how it contributes to the economy. I don’t think advisors and agencies are as well-known as an industry interest group as they should be, relative to their place in the economy. I think sometimes it’s easy for legislators to take detrimental action because they don’t know which of their constituents they are affecting. This won’t change until Congress understands the number of small business travel agencies in their districts, as well as the economic impact that these agencies have in their district, state, and as a whole. 

The vibe is incredibly inspiring; you are in a room full of 200 advisors who genuinely feel they made a difference that day. I am always energized by this event.