HFA Earns 48 Wins in State Legislatures in 2024

At a recent Health & Fitness Association strategy meeting, the HFA staff reconfirmed our mission to inform our members and the broader industry about policy issues that affect them and the HFA advocacy team's efforts to prevent legislative harm to the industry.

HFA's advocacy efforts have continued to grow since the world's last crisis because threats to the industry are omnipresent and the future is unpredictable.

During the past year, HFA secured 48 state legislative wins, safeguarding businesses from costly regulatory burdens. Our efforts are detailed in our 2024 State Advocacy Report: Empowering the Industry Through Strategic Engagement, which includes the issues we're tracking, the reasons behind our stances on each issue, and why we continue to rack up wins for the industry.

The State of the States

As much as 70% of our advocacy focus is on protecting and promoting the industry at the state level. Because legislation is easier to introduce and pass on the state level and tends to stay under the radar, state houses are the incubators of many policy ideas that eventually find their way to the U.S. Congress.

Here at the HFA, nothing stays under the radar. We're on it. While we continue to build a foundation in D.C. for a strong future of engagement and positioning of the industry, the state work is often how we impact the industry's bottom line.

In 2024, the HFA tracked more than 1,000 bills in 20 states and reviewed each to determine if these bills impacted the industry positively or negatively. Once we made that determination, we mobilized our grassroots supporters and directly engaged with lawmakers, sometimes with an HFA member/s who owned a business in the region. In 2024, we met with more than 100 state lawmakers. In many of these meetings, HFA Manager of Government Affairs Charles Regnante represented the association, but we also worked with state lobbyists and other industry allies to assist in our outreach.

The top issues we dealt with were (and likely will continue to be):

• Auto-renew

• Click-to-cancel

• Price transparency

• Data privacy protections

• Cashless retail bans

• Sales tax on memberships

• Liability waivers

In our report, we explain why these issues are so important to the industry, and the reasons we oppose these bills all-out or work with lawmakers to modify the legislation.

Stressing the Positive

It's not always about tackling harmful legislation. Promoting policies and laws that increase safety, service, and access to facilities and fitness services is also part of our advocacy mandate.

In 2024, the HFA supported legislation that addressed AED liability protections, fitness facility subsidies, and tax credits for military personnel who are members of fitness facilities. In Pennsylvania, a bill we supported offered a $600 credit for National Guardsman, reservists, and active military personnel to use at the fitness facility of their choice. The bill passed, and others are being proposed in more states.

The HFA is also proactive in the consumer protection space. Legislation that the HFA opposes may be well-intentioned, but once the practical realities on the ground are considered, these bills fall short and may actually harm the consumer. For instance, “click-to-cancel” may sound good in theory, but without considering how such a policy is carried out in today’s complex digital processing world and other practicalities, these proposed laws end up not just harming businesses but also the customers they serve.

Next year, we will provide more resources and communications around proactive advocacy. We also plan to update state regulations for fitness facilities to ensure clarity, certainty, and uniformity around the country in an effort to protect companies that expand across state lines and sometimes face unexpected burdens and costs.

Stay Informed and Involved

Although the 2024 State Advocacy Report covers our U.S. advocacy efforts, the HFA is fully committed to its global advocacy mission. We know that the policies we address in U.S. statehouses will eventually or have already been introduced in other countries. That's why this report and virtually all of our advocacy work in the U.S. has relevance to our global members.

This brings me to an important part of successful advocacy for any trade association. The HFA policy team can't do it alone. Our members must be involved and support our advocacy cause.

At the HFA, we are fortunate to have so many of our members step up and play important roles in our advocacy efforts. The 15 industry leaders who make up the National Health & Fitness Alliance (NHFA), which is the HFA policy committee, are volunteers who lead the charge in updating language to better reflect current business practices and promote uniformity in states around the country.

In addition to these supporters, we also need our grassroots army to have our back. It's not just important for the HFA's advocacy work, but it also empowers everyday people to take power back. Engaging the system can seem daunting, but you do have a voice. Work with us, and we'll make it roar!

Download the Report