Brand U.S.A., a government-funded program that aims to promote foreign tourism to the United States, is facing the cutting knives of the Trump administration.
Last month, the organization laid off 15% of its employees and shut down its streaming services.
TOURISM AGENCY USES ‘IN KIND’ DONATIONS TO MILK TAXPAYERS
One reason: Congress just voted to cut its government support by 80%.
Brand USA has, for years, received $100 million from the federal government. This money comes out of a special federal account funded by a $17 fee charged to foreign visitors who use the Electronic System Travel Authorization.
In effect, the U.S. government charges foreign tourists a fee to advertise the U.S. to foreign tourists.
Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill cut that annual subsidy to Brand USA from $100 million to $20 million. The organization, and the entire tourism industry, resolved to lobby to restore this money.
The U.S. Travel Association, an industry lobby group whose members include hotels and airlines, in August just hired its former CEO as an outside lobbyist to lobby specifically on funding for Brand USA, according to a new federal filing.
Combined with the government shutdown that could affect TSA and visa operations, plus Trump’s general tightening of our borders, the tourism industry worries that the decline of Brand USA will exacerbate the current swoon in foreign visitors.
But there’s a prior question: Why did Congress ever put Uncle Sam in the business of subsidizing the tourism industry? Yes, other countries run their own tourism promotion, but other countries aren’t the United States of America. They are more socialist, less famous, and less awesome.
It turns out that the history of Uncle Sam’s tourism promotion is a telling story of how lobbying works in Washington.
Here’s how I reported the story during the Obama years:
“In 2005 Rep. Bill Delahunt, a Democrat who represents Cape Cod, addressed the Washington Summit of the Travel Business Roundtable, and urged it to lobby more. Fed News reported, ‘The Congressman called on the industry to wage a more aggressive, bipartisan campaign.'”
“The industry obliged with enthusiasm. The Travel Business Roundtable registered as a lobbying organization in 2006, changed its name to the Discover America Partnership, and hired Steven Schwadron, Delahunt’s longtime chief of staff, as its K Street lobbyist.”
“Delahunt [in 2009] sponsored HR 2935, the Travel Promotion Act, which creates a Corporation for Travel Promotion,” which is now Brand USA.
That is, a congressman said *You need to lobby more,* and industry complied — hiring that congressman’s chief of staff as its lobbyist. USTA also launched a PAC that by 2018 was spending more than $800,000 per election, mostly helping incumbents win re-election.
CONGRESS PUSHES SUBSIDIES FOR TOURISM INDUSTRY
It’s another example of how the business-government intersection is more complex than some imagine: The politicians want industry and government to be tightly intertwined because it further empowers and enriches the folks in Washington.
But the latest developments show how this can be perilous for industry: When you depend on politics for your financial well-being, a change in politics can hit your pocketbook pretty hard.
