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The Big Wins from OHI's Advocacy Team
Take a look at what we’ve done in the past and how OHI is on your side. The following are some examples of OHI-led public affairs and advocacy work directly affecting the outdoor hospitality industry:
Saving you Money One of our efforts involved OHI successfully providing public comment to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to rescind their interpretative rule which included the square footage of porches on PMRV’s, which would have rendered 65% of PMRV’s unrentable because they would no longer meet the manufacturing standards of an RV or manufactured housing.
Representation matters! OHI has representatives on the National Fire Protection Association’s 1192/1194 Recreational Vehicle Panels and representation on the National Electric CodeMaking Panel 7. As a result of this representation, OHI successfully removed a proposal that would have required two ground rods at each electric pedestal, saving the industry millions of dollars, and each individual owner and operator $100/per site. Additionally, OHI has representatives on the RV Industry Association’s GoRving Committee, the Standards Committee, and the Park Model RV Committee.
In 2022, OHI was successful in changing RV parks and campgrounds to essential business classification with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. RV Parks and Campgrounds were defined as “Outdoor Events” and are now defined as “Lodging Sector”, which ensures our industry can stay open and operational as an essential business, should another pandemic or natural disaster strike. Inherent Risk Legislation Camping, like other outdoor activities, comes with inherent risks—dangers can arise from encountering uneven terrain, natural bodies of water, features of nature such as tree stumps or roots or other elements of the natural world. Even so, some campers have filed lawsuits against campground owners to try to assign blame for injuries that arise from these inherent risks that are beyond the campground owners’ control.
That’s why legislation is being introduced in a number of states this year to provide campground owners with immunity from liability for the inherent risks of camping. OHI has supported the passage of inherent risk legislation passage in six states – Wisconsin, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas. More recently at the 2023 National Conference of State Legislatures Summit, OHI’s senior director of state relations and program advocacy met with Maryland Sen. Mike McKay & Delegate Ric Metzgar who both expressed interest in inherent risk legislation in Maryland.
State and Local Support OHI monitors and takes action at the local, state and federal level. A few examples of our recent wins at the state level are:
A key step we made to protect campgrounds was in Missouri where OHI assisted in coauthoring and passing a bill regarding guest ejection and removal by defining the relationship as “transient guest relationship” and not a “landlord/tenant relationship”, removing the civil court process for ejecting a guest.
In March 2023, OHI provided oral and written testimony before the NH House Judiciary Committee on a bill limiting the liability of a campground owner on issues of inherent risks of camping. For questions specific to OHI’s advocacy efforts, contact our advocacy team at advocacy@OHI.org or submit this form. We’re here to help!
