Government Affairs

Some hard seltzer brands may be excluded from grocery and convenience stores in Utah under an omnibus bill proposed in the state Senate. Alaska’s state Senate has passed a bill that would make it harder for breweries to open taprooms in the state.

The Treasury, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), issued a 64-page report along with several recommendations that it said would “better level the playing field for small businesses and new marketplace entrants by enforcing existing laws that promote competition and modernizing outdated alcohol regulations.”

Tito’s Vodka maker Fifth Generation, Inc. has struck an offer in compromise (OIC) with the Department of Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) for $305,000, the federal agency announced Monday.

A bill in Indiana would remove restrictions on some off-premise retailers that prohibit them from selling cold beer. Towns in New Jersey are now allowed to designate areas where legal drinking age people can drink alcoholic beverages, according to NorthJersey.com.

The U.S. and European Union (EU) have struck a deal that will lift some tariffs on aluminum and steel that were enacted by former President Donald Trump.

Massachusetts lawmakers are considering doubling the commonwealth’s excise tax on beer, wine and spirits. The bill proposes increasing the state excise tax rate for malt beverages (including flavored malt beverages and sugar-based hard seltzers) from $3.30 per barrel to $6.60 per barrel.

Reyes Beer Division CEO Tom Day challenged the notion that competition in California’s beer market has suffered due to his company’s expansion efforts in the Golden State, according to a letter from the leader of the United States’ largest beer wholesaler to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Key services performed by the Department of Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) will be paused if the government shuts down this week, TTB deputy administrator David Wulf said during the Beer Institute (BI) annual membership meeting this week.

Updates to the EIDL program include an increase of the loan cap from $500,000 to $2 million, the addition of a two-year repayment deferral period, an expansion of eligible uses for funds, and the creation of a 30-day exclusivity window to approve and disburse loans smaller than $500,000 to focus on the smallest businesses, according to a Brewers Association (BA) blog post.

Beer industry trade groups are calling on the leaders of the U.S. Senate appropriations committee to allocate additional funds to the Department of the Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau’s (TTB) 2022 fiscal year budget. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued warnings this week about the potential risks of Delta-8 — a form of the psychoactive cannabinoid tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

As part of President Joe Biden’s “COVID-19 action plan” announced last week, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is developing an “Emergency Temporary Standard” that will require employers of 100 or more employees to be fully vaccinated or require unvaccinated workers to undergo weekly testing before going to work.

Leaders from the Brewers Association (BA), Beer Institute (BI), and National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) submitted comments to Amy Greenberg, regulations and rulings division director of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), detailing each group’s purview of the market and specific requests that would benefit or mitigate harm against their respective members.

New Hampshire breweries gained direct-to-consumer intrastate shipping rights and several other new privileges when Gov. Christopher Sununu signed a bill of alcoholic beverage reforms into law earlier this month. “They built their businesses: Our job is to get out of the way and let them thrive and grow,” Sununu said

Dutch brewing giant Heineken N.V. reported its first half 2021 earnings today, and its U.S. business division recorded “high-single digit” beer volume growth through the first two quarters of the year.