Representative Bruce E. Westerman (R)

This legislation would help counter rising organized retail crime, which costs retailers billions in stolen merchandise and threatens the safety of retail workers and customers. Retail loss prevention teams and state and local law enforcement have active efforts to investigate ORC groups and build cases but are frequently hampered by a lack of visibility into the scope of retail crime groups’ broader activities, nationally and internationally. The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2023 would help remedy this issue by creating an interagency ORC Coordination Center at Homeland Security Investigations. Click here to view the Key Vote Letter. NRF  POSITION:  SUPPORT.  

Strips away workers’ free choice in union elections and their privacy rights, interferes with employers’ ability to secure legal advice on complex labor matters, expands joint employer liability, prohibits the use of arbitration for employment matters, and strips away “secondary boycott” protections among other provisions. NRF Position: OPPOSE

This legislation would provide much—needed relief to retailers and consumers by injecting competition into the credit card routing market. Interchange or “swipe” fees totaled a record $160.7 billion in 2022, a $22 billion increase from the previous year. In fact, American retailers and merchants pay the highest swipe fee rates in the world, which has led to swipe fees being most retailers’ highest cost after labor. Read NRF's Key Vote letter. NRF POSITION: SUPPORT. 

The bill establishes a broad array of workplace regulations and legal causes of action specific to the warehousing sector that go far beyond protections available to workers in much more physically challenging and dangerous environments. This, despite the fact that warehouse worksites are already regulated at the federal and state level, and aggrieved employees have extensive employment rights under existing law. Notably, the bill would also overturn Congress’s 2001 prohibition on OSHA ever regulating ergonomics in the workplace and would mandate a new ergonomics standard. Click here to read NRF's Key Vote letter. NRF POSITION: OPPOSE