Associated Equipment Distributors

Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) is an international trade association representing over 800 industrial equipment companies that rent and sell equipment used in construction, mining, energy, agriculture and other industrial applications. The association runs congressional lobbying, education, research, networking and public relations programs. AED was founded in 1919 and is headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois.^[1][2] The chairman of the association is Don Shilling, owner of General Equipment and Supplies in Fargo, North Dakota, a construction equipment supply company that employs around 250 people.^[3][4]

History

In 1913, Milwaukee, Wisconsin native Morton R. Hunter, stepson to President Herbert Hoover’s secretary, graduated from the University of Michigan with a civil engineering degree. After college, he joined the Kern-Hunter Company, a machine distributor, as a salesman. Within a year, he bought the company and renamed it to Hunter Machinery Co.^[5]

Hunter and his company invented the first bulldozer used to plow snow off roads. He also invented the first truck-mounted cement mixer.^[5]

In 1919, he created the Associated Equipment Distributors as a trade association for companies like his own.^[5]

In 1954, Hunter returned to AED as a member of the advisory board.^[5]

In 1966, independent distributors of construction equipment sold $1.1 billion in new equipment and $270 million in used equipment in the United States. That year, America had a fleet of 23,000 service repairmen. 900 distributors and 400 manufacturers operated in the U.S. and Canada in 1966.^[6]

In 1969, only one founder of AED was still living: Morton R. Hunter of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.^[7]

The AED Foundation (AEDF) was formed in 1991 to offer "professional education and workforce development." AEDF accredits equipment technology educational programs at colleges in the United States.^[2]

In 2000, AED and TradeYard, Inc., an online trading network, announced the creation of a national inspection program for used construction equipment sold over the Internet. In that year, total e-commerce sales in the U.S. were $26 billion (compared with $298 billion in 2014).^[8]

In 2004, Dale Vaughn, head of OCT Equipment in Oklahoma City, was elected president of AED.^[9]

Transportation and infrastructure

On September 8, 2014, AED president Brian McGuire published a letter to the editor in USA Today in response to the newspaper's then-recent editorial "Calif. drought bares national lessons". In his letter, McGuire compared the crisis of a drought to the broader crisis of funding national infrastructure projects. Specifically, McGuire urged the protection of what is called "state revolving funds," which amounted to $2.35 billion for sewage and drinking water projects. McGuire wrote, "You rightly observed that 'unlike an earthquake or a tornado, a drought is a slowly unfolding disaster.' I find that imagery very powerful because the broader crisis faced by our nation's infrastructure has been just that."^[10]

At the beginning of August 2015, Congress and President Obama passed a short term extension for federal highway funding. The association spoke out strongly against the inability of Congress to pass a long-term solution. McGuire was quoted in the publication Bulk Transporter saying, "Obviously we're pleased to finally see some progress on a long-term highway and transit bill. . . . At the same time, the lack of urgency in the House is inexcusable. For months we've heard promises and platitudes but seen no action. Rather than rolling up their sleeves and getting to work either writing their own bill or taking up the Senate's legislation, House lawmakers instead decided to leave for the August recess."^[11]

Lobbying and political activity

On the professional lobbying front, AED hired the former assistant director at the IRS to lobby Congress on tax issues on its behalf. For grassroots lobbying, AED runs an annual legislative week for its members. Members of AED contact Congress to discuss issues related to the equipment industry. On the campaign and elections side, AED runs a political action machine (PAC) that gives campaign donations to federal candidates. AED outsources some of its lobbying activity. For example, in 2013, AED hired attorney Donald A. Barnes to lobby on behalf of AED on tax issues.^[12] Before lobbying, Barnes previously served as the Assistant to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue at the IRS.^[13]

Each year, AED hosts a week-long program designed to influence public policy. AED members contact Members of Congress to discuss issues relevant to the equipment manufacturing industry. The program is called the "AED Legislative Action Week.”^[2]

AED owns a political action committee (PAC) that gives money to predominantly Republican political candidates. In the last two election cycles, AED gave the following amounts of political contributions to federal candidates:^[14]

Congressional testimony

AED influences the lawmaking process in Washington in the areas of Small Business Administration (SBA) loans, transportation spending, and energy issues.

On June 10, 2009, Tim Watters, a New Jersey-based equipment dealer, testified before Congress on behalf of AED. Before the U.S. House Small Business Committee, Watters asked Congress to increase funding for infrastructure projects, change the underwriting process for Small Business Association loans to help the construction industry get loans faster and easier, and investigate “allegations of SBA bias.”^[15] On March 14, 2013, Whit Perryman, an executive with AED and owner of a Texas-based equipment company, testified before the U.S. House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources Hearing. In his testimony, Perryman admitted that his own company, Vermeer Texas-Louisiana, was benefiting from shale oil production. He testified that his company was going to add a new location in Midland Texas, the former home of both former presidents Bush and the one-time epicenter of West Texas oil fields.^[16][17]

On June 1, 2015, AED’s chairman Don Shilling testified in a congressional hearing before House Small Business Committee. The hearing focused on the role that small companies played in the larger industries responsible for building roads, bridges, and other highway projects (referred to as the “surface transportation construction industry”).^[4]

Selected past presidents

• 1969-James W. Griffith^[7]
• 1973-Gordan W. Rowand^[18]

References