SIA Member Executives Join Forces on the Hill to Advocate for Security Industry Policy Priorities

On March 4–5, 2026, 70 security industry executives from the Security Industry Association (SIA), the Electronic Security Association (ESA) and The Monitoring Association (TMA) gathered on Capitol Hill for the fourth annual Security Hill Day to advocate for policies that support the growth of tech-focused jobs in our industry and the effectiveness of our work to secure the future and ensure a safer world.

The 2026 Security Hill Day event served as a crucial advocacy tool for the security industry, which contributes over $430 billion to the economy and provides more than 2.1 million jobs in the United States. Each year, this event gives leaders a chance to discuss the economic impact that they have in each congressional district, state and across the United States. At the 2026 event, executives also underlined the important work they do to protect our country, our citizens and our economy, especially in light of the security needs for protecting large upcoming events such as the 2026 World Cup, 2028 Olympic Games and America 250 celebrations.

Speakers and Awardees

Attendees kicked off the event with a dinner at the National Press Club on March 4. SIA Board Chair Scott Dunn welcomed attendees, guests and speakers, before handing off the microphone Howard Waltzman of Meyer Brown, who gave an overview of the security industry’s efforts to protect the Lower 900 MHz Band. Former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency National Risk Management Director Bob Kolasky also took some time to discuss critical infrastructure security strategies and risk management. The dinner concluded with a keynote presentation from Brody Mullins, author of The Wolves of K Street.

Also at the dinner event, SIA recognized Brett Feddersen, Gene Fullano and John Steele as the 2026 recipients of the SIA Industry Advocate Award. The SIA Industry Advocate Award recognizes SIA member volunteers for their extraordinary contributions of professional time, leadership and resources to position SIA and its members to address the public policy challenges impacting the security industry. We are incredibly grateful to this year’s awardees for their outstanding leadership and support of SIA’s government relations initiatives at Security Hill Day.

At the Capitol Hill Club, in a breakfast prior to the day’s meetings, attendees were joined by Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-Wash.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) of the House Homeland Security Committee. The legislators spoke attendees about the valuable work they do to support policies that enhance security and life safety across the United States.

Members were also briefed by Robert Boland, chief of staff to Republican Majority Whip Tom Emmer on House Republican legislative priorities for the year, and got a timely review and analysis of the status of International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs from Timothy Keeler of Meyer Brown. The breakfast event served as a helpful primer for members going into their schedule of meetings for the day.

Policy Priorities

Policy priorities this year included a request to protect the Lower 900 MHz Band; a request to fully fund important safety grant programs, including the School Violence Prevention Program and the School Safety Enhancement Grant Program; support for the implementation of important counterdrone legislation and ideas on how to further expand authorities for trained security personnel; and support for the development of a national data privacy framework and artificial intelligence policy that allows society to harness the benefits of AI and other new technologies for enhancing safety and security.

The security industry’s top priority is for legislators to help protect the Lower 900 MHz Band, a band of spectrum from 902-928 MHz that is used by millions of part 15 devices, including alarm, electronic access and security camera technologies, among other security and life safety equipment essential for protecting homes, small businesses and critical infrastructure.

For Security Hill Day, industry executives were able to raise awareness of the vast public safety and security uses in the Lower 900 MHz Band to 55 different congressional offices, as we simultaneously continue to advocate before the Federal Communications Commission that they dismiss the petition and preserve the rules protecting public use of the band.

SIA appreciates the receptiveness of lawmakers to our policy requests and looks forward to continuing our advocacy efforts with the offices we’ve met with. If you have any questions, or would like to be more involved in SIA’s government relations advocacy efforts, please reach out to Jake Parker, senior director of government relations, at jparker@securityindustry.org, or Lauren Bresette, senior manager of government relations, at lbresette@securityindustry.org.