The Coldbeer Heavier-Use Generation (CHUG) Act
Plus: The beginning of craft beer’s barrel-aged age!
Editor’s note: Hello and welcome to Lobby Time, Fingers’ weekly overview of booze-related legislative moves around the country, published exclusively for paid subscribers. (Buy a subscription now to read this and all my coverage.) I’m piloting a new format for this paid-only feature, but my aim for now is to publish it in this Tuesday slot for the next couple months and see how it goes. Reply directly to this email or hit the comments to let me know what you think!—Dave.
Alcohol is mostly regulated at the state level in this country, but federal lawmakers have plenty of ways to reshape the beverage-alcohol business even so. See: Prohibition, Jimmy Carter signing off on a bill to legalize homebrewing, the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act, et cetera.1 So today’s Lobby Time leading item is focused on a bill introduced yesterday in the United States House of Representatives that aims to stanch sliding draft beer sales with federal tax deductions. I think? Sort of? Let’s get into it.