There is a long tradition in American business of showing up in person when something important is on the line. Letters get filed. Emails get skimmed. But a person standing in a congressional office, talking about the grain he buys, the people he employs and the town he operates in, tends to stick.
That is the idea behind the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States' Congressional Fly-In, scheduled for Sept. 24 in Washington, D.C. The trade group, better known as DISCUS, is inviting its members to travel to the capital and meet face to face with federal lawmakers and their staffs. The purpose is straightforward: give the people who actually run distilleries a chance to explain what they do, what they are up against and what Washington's decisions mean back home.
What the Fly-In Actually Involves
The format is not complicated, and that is part of its appeal. Distillers head to Capitol Hill and sit down with the representatives and senators who serve their districts and states, along with the congressional staffers who often do the day-to-day work on legislation. Instead of a lobbyist speaking on their behalf, the business owners speak for themselves.
Those conversations are meant to cover the real story of a distillery operation. That includes the jobs on the payroll, the visitors who come through the door, the farmers who supply the grain and the broader role a distillery plays in the community around it. DISCUS has framed the day around the key issues facing the U.S. spirits sector, with attention on how distilleries support employment, tourism, agriculture and local economies across the country.
DISCUS President and CEO Chris Swonger has been direct about why the group keeps organizing these trips.
"Nothing is more effective than having distillers, both large and small, share their experiences directly with policymakers," said DISCUS President and CEO Chris Swonger. "These meetings help ensure lawmakers understand the positive impact our industry has on local economies and the issues that matter most to distilleries, their employees and consumers."
Big Operations and Small Ones Alike
One detail worth noticing in Swonger's comment is the phrase "both large and small." The spirits business in America covers an enormous range. There are legacy houses with national distribution and long histories, and there are operations run by a handful of people working out of a converted building in a small town. Both are welcome at the fly-in, and both bring something different to a lawmaker's office.
The large producers can speak to scale — export markets, supply chains, sizable workforces. The smaller producers can speak to what it takes to get a young business off the ground and keep it running. Together they present a fuller picture than either could alone, and that variety is part of what makes the day useful for the members of Congress on the receiving end.
Why the Industry Keeps Coming Back to Washington
Anyone who has followed the spirits business for a while knows it does not operate in a vacuum. Taxes, trade, regulation and labeling rules all shape the economics of making and selling whiskey, rum, gin, vodka, tequila and everything else on the shelf. Decisions made in Washington show up later in the price of a bottle, the size of a payroll and whether a company can afford to expand.
That is why direct access matters. A member of Congress may represent a district with a distillery in it and still not have a clear sense of how many people that distillery employs, how much grain it buys from nearby farms or how many out-of-state visitors it draws each year. A short meeting can close that gap in a way a policy brief cannot.
Jobs, Tourism and the Farm Connection
The economic argument the industry brings to these meetings rests on a few pillars, all of which DISCUS has highlighted as focal points for the day.
Jobs come first. Distilleries employ production staff, warehouse workers, sales teams, hospitality staff and administrative personnel. Many of those positions are in places where a single employer of that size carries real weight.
Tourism is the second piece. Distillery visitor centers, tasting rooms and trail-style tours have become genuine travel destinations. Visitors book hotel rooms, eat in local restaurants and shop in nearby stores. The spending does not stop at the distillery gate.
Agriculture is the third. Distilling starts with crops — corn, rye, barley, wheat, agave, sugarcane and more, depending on the product. Distilleries are customers for American farmers, and spent grain from production frequently goes back out as livestock feed. That relationship between the still and the field is one of the more concrete things a distiller can describe to a lawmaker who represents farm country.
The Cocktail Party: Business After Hours
The day does not end when the last office meeting wraps up. Following the fly-in, DISCUS members are invited to The Cocktail Party, the organization's signature rooftop event, running from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Calling it a party undersells the guest list. The event brings together hundreds of attendees, including Members of Congress, executive branch officials, embassy representatives, members of the media and prominent leaders from business, policy and the association world. It is the kind of room where a two-minute conversation can accomplish what several weeks of phone tag cannot.
What the Evening Looks Like
The setting is a rooftop with the U.S. Capitol in the background, which is not a bad backdrop for a drink. Guests can expect networking, live music, signature cocktails and exclusive tasting tables featuring products from DISCUS member companies.
Those tasting tables serve a purpose beyond hospitality. For a distiller, having a policymaker taste the product and hear the story behind it is a different kind of pitch than a slide deck. People remember what they tasted and who poured it. For smaller producers especially, it is a rare chance to put a bottle in front of an audience that would otherwise be difficult to reach.
A Practical Reason to Make the Trip
For distillery owners weighing whether to spend a day and a plane ticket on this, the value comes down to relationships. Policy rarely changes because of one meeting. It changes because a lawmaker's office has heard from the same industry repeatedly, has a name and a face attached to the issue, and knows who to call when a question comes up.
Showing up once establishes the contact. Showing up regularly makes the contact real. The fly-in format compresses that work into a single day, with DISCUS handling the coordination so that members can focus on the conversations rather than the logistics.
Coming Prepared Pays Off
Distillers who have done these trips before tend to give the same advice: bring specifics. Numbers land better than generalities. How many people are on the payroll. How many gallons are produced. How many visitors came through last year. Which local farms supply the grain. What a particular cost increase would mean for hiring plans.
Personal stories help too. Lawmakers hear economic arguments constantly. What they hear less often is the account of a family business that started in a garage, or a second-career founder who put a retirement account into a still and a rickhouse and is now employing a dozen neighbors.
An Industry That Runs on More Than Product
It is easy to think of the spirits business as bottles on a shelf. In practice it is coopers making barrels, truck drivers hauling freight, farmers planting for a known buyer, bartenders building drinks, and small-town main streets that get busier because a distillery opened nearby. That web of activity is exactly what the fly-in is designed to make visible to the people writing the rules.
The industry's argument has always been that it is a manufacturer, an employer, an agricultural customer and a tourism draw all at once. Sept. 24 is the day set aside to make that argument in person.
How to Take Part
DISCUS members interested in joining the Sept. 24 Congressional Fly-In can register through the organization. Registration also covers attendance at The Cocktail Party that evening. Anyone planning to attend should sign up in advance so meeting schedules with congressional offices can be arranged.
For distillers who have spent years explaining their business to bankers, distributors and customers, explaining it to a member of Congress is not that different a task. The main requirement is being in the room. On Sept. 24, DISCUS is opening the door.
