Pete sits down with Charles Smitherman, CEO of APRO, to talk about LegCon — the annual legislative conference where rent-to-own industry members travel to Washington DC to meet directly with their congressional representatives. Now in its 31st year, LegCon 2025 brought 88 attendees, up from 78 the year before, with a goal of hitting triple digits in 2026.
The logistics alone are impressive. APRO's Lisa Krabinoff builds teams of four to eight people, matching attendees by geography so each group meets with the legislators most relevant to their stores. Teams spend the day moving between Senate and House offices across multiple buildings — some attendees logged over 16,000 steps. The morning begins with speaker sessions to set context; this year that included a legislative aide from Speaker Johnson's office discussing the House tax bill and a director from the National Retail Federation who walked the group through the tariff landscape in real time, just hours before major market movement.
The centerpiece of the event for Charles is the Fellows Program, started in partnership with Ashley Furniture, which funds hotel and local travel for first-timers who work full-time in a rent-to-own store. The idea is apprenticeship — pairing newer attendees with veterans like Michael Wall, Michael Bennett, and Larry Carrico, who has attended 27 of the 31 conferences. Fellows get to hear decades of institutional knowledge applied in real legislative meetings, then carry that forward. Ten fellows attended last year, 15 this year, and half of last year's class returned in 2025.
The advocacy itself is preemptive, not reactive. The industry's core argument is that rent-to-own is a lease transaction, not a credit transaction, and is already regulated at the state level under 46 individual state statutes. The threat — illustrated by what's currently unfolding in New York — is being lumped in with newer fintech products like buy-now-pay-later and earned wage access under broad consumer protection legislation. APRO has been fighting a New York bill that would essentially overwrite 40 years of established state statute by grouping rent-to-own with products that have no equivalent regulatory history.
Pete closes by noting one of the most memorable moments of this year's LegCon: walking into legislative offices with no crisis to report, just a proactive conversation about the industry — and watching staffers visibly relax. In a city where everyone walks in with a problem to solve, showing up to say "we're doing well, here's who we are, and here's what we'd like you to watch for" landed differently than anyone expected.
Join The RTO Newsletter: https://bit.ly/RTOPODnewsletter
Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/4wpbUqF
Subscribe on Spotify: https://bit.ly/RTOPODspotify
Learn More About Sponsorship: https://bit.ly/RTOPODsponsor
