IFA Statement on White House Support of Franchising

During speech at McDonald’s Impact Summit in Washington, D.C., President Trump highlights importance of clear “joint employer” standard that protects America’s nearly 850,000 franchise small businesses, provides much-needed clarity and unleashes economic opportunity for all

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The International Franchise Association (IFA) today issued the following statement after President Donald Trump highlighted the importance of the franchise business model and a commonsense federal joint employer standard:

“We appreciate President Trump’s longstanding support for franchising through a commonsense joint employer standard, and we stand ready to work with his administration and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers to make it a reality through the American Franchise Act,” said Matt Haller, IFA President and CEO. “Franchising is a business model that knows no political, socioeconomic or ideological boundaries, and is a force for economic opportunity that has provided upward mobility to so many. With the federal government re-open, now is the time for lawmakers to get back to business, moving forward with the American Franchise Act to recognize that franchises are small businesses, and their independence must be protected by federal law.”

Introduced on September 10, the American Franchise Act (H.R. 5267) has 39 bipartisan cosponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives. This legislation comes after a decade of changing joint employer rules and would lock in a clear, franchise-specific joint-employer standard to end years of regulatory whiplash that has raised costs, legal risk, and harmed growth for brands, local owners, and their employees. Most recently, the NLRB’s 2023 joint employer rule sought to expand the definition of joint employer to an ambiguous and overly broad standard that threatened the viability of the entire franchise model.

In its 2025 Roadmap For Small Business Growth, IFA identified codifying a joint employer standard that preserves franchisee independence as its top priority.

For more details on the AFA, click HERE. The full legislation can be viewed HERE.

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About the International Franchise Association:

Celebrating over 60 years of excellence, education, and advocacy, the International Franchise Association (IFA) is the world’s oldest and largest organization representing franchising worldwide. IFA works through its government relations and public policy, media relations, and educational programs to protect, enhance and promote franchising and the approximately 831,000 franchise establishments that support nearly 8.8 million direct jobs, $896.9 billion of economic output for the U.S. economy, and almost 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). IFA members include franchise companies in over 300 different business format categories, individual franchisees, and companies that support the industry in marketing, law, technology, and business development.