Katie Marisic is working for the people.
As the Federal Affairs Director at the Brewers Association in Washington, D.C., she's the last link of the lobbyist chain to the federal government.
I first spoke to Katie Marisic a few days after the white supremacist domestic terrorist attack on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., the very area where she both lives and works. “It has not been a great week-slash-year,” Marisic admits. “It’s been rough, but then you also have that constant reminder that what it is for you is still not as bad as so many other people.”
That reflex to think of others before herself is characteristic of Marisic. Her role as the Federal Affairs Director of the Brewers Association means that she is, quite literally, the voice for the craft beer industry to the federal government. She’s largely responsible for planning, lobbying on behalf of, and executing policies as an official advocate. “I handle the federal legislative issues,” she explains. “Of course, a lot of things happen at the state level, but we see more and more the impact the federal government can have on our industry.” It’s largely invisible work, but its effects are far-reaching.
The main project that encompassed most of her 2020 was successfully lobbying for the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA) to become permanent, meaning brewers and importers can now count on current federal excise tax cuts to stay in place rather than increase year after year. This means that collectively, craft breweries will save $80 million dollars per year. The same act also expanded the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for craft breweries and other small beer-related businesses, a lifeline that will unquestionably prevent the permanent closure of many small breweries grappling with the pandemic—and will likely help them to not just weather the storm, but flourish.
“In 2018 and 2019, our industry created 25,000 new jobs,” says Marisic. “Prior to that, we've been averaging—just based off of growth of the industry—5,000 new jobs a year.” She goes on to say that she believes a significant portion of those jobs are directly related to the excise tax calibration, thanks to breweries now having confirmation that tax rates won’t continue to climb, giving them flexibility to hire more employees. With a more concrete projection for annual costs, Marisic believes this employment growth will continue.
These massive initiatives and their immediate positive impact on the craft beer industry earned Marisic well-deserved recognition; she was named a 2020 Signifier by Good Beer Hunting, one of the “Persons of the Year” by Brewbound, and one of the top lobbyists by The Hill. While these accolades focus on her policy-shaping acumen, her beer chops run just as deep. “Beer is something that runs pretty strongly in my family,” says Marisic. “My dad was super passionate about craft beer.”
She describes his early influence and responsible exposure to beer as a “big influence” on her and her sister, who happens to work at Maine Beer Company. “He used to have a party every December 24, and he would have beer in different coolers based off of the region that it was from,” Marisic says. “He would always have Coors Light or Miller Lite on hand for people if that's what they wanted, but the thing was ‘you could have that, but please try this.’ My dad passed away 11 years ago, and I still have people who are like, ‘Oh, Katie I went to Tröegs the other day, and it reminded me of your dad.’”
When Marisic started looking at colleges, she laughs as she recounts his involvement. “I remember there were two I was looking at in Oregon, and my dad was like, ‘We should definitely go there!’ And then I realized that part of his enthusiasm was he wanted to go check out the Oregon brewing scene.” She ended up at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, around 230 miles west of her hometown of Mount Gretna in central Pennsylvania. There, she fell in love with the Pittsburgh food and drink scene. But closer to home, nearby brewery Tröegs continued to nurse her dad’s enthusiasm for good, local, craft beer, especially their Pale Ale.
“When the Tröegs brothers [Chris and John Trogner] opened their brewery in their original [Harrisburg] location, they had put out a request for furniture. We had this chair that, when my sister and I were growing up, it was our time-out chair. At some point, my mother wanted it out of the house. So my dad donated it to them to have, and they ended up taking it with them to the new location in Hershey. I think it was two years ago, I was up there for an event, and they were like, ‘Hey Katie do you want to see the chair?’ And they have it in their waiting room!” She stops to laugh. “It was a really nice thing and a great memory.”
After college, Marisic began working on some progressive political campaigns until she moved to Washington, D.C. for a political affairs job with the National Association of Federal Credit Unions. One of her coworkers happened to be married to a homebrewer, who eventually opened a brewery, Atlas Brew Works, in 2013. “I was a minor investor in it, but my stipulation for investing—and it’s not something I recommend to anyone now—was I wanted to work there part time,” she laughs. “It was fun and it was a combination of my existing job and something that I was very passionate about.”
She watched as D.C., as well as other states, continued to adjust their laws benefiting the growth of the craft beer industry. This made her wonder: was there some job where she could combine her passion for legislative advocacy on Capitol Hill and beer? “It just so happened that right around that time, the Brewers Association started looking for people. I applied… and as it turned out, my combination was what they were looking for: someone who was passionate about the industry and someone who had a really strong background in Washington, D.C. lobbying.”
Since joining the Brewers Association in 2015, Marisic’s goal has been to “ease a little bit of the burden” breweries face by advocating on their behalf. Based on her track record, the positive results speak for themselves. And despite some pointed criticism towards the Brewers Association, which she acknowledges has been difficult (especially during the pandemic), her individual mission is to continue that work that she knows makes a difference. “Know that we are working for you,” she says. “That’s what I wake up—not just every work day, but every day—and think about: how we can help our industry survive and thrive.”
Prohibitchin' is sponsored by Hopsbauer, a woman-owned hops brokerage company based in San Diego. Hopsbauer brings the best hops from around the world to craft breweries. Find out more by visiting Hopsbauer.com.