As the 118th Congress concludes its session, the National Retail Federation continues its push against retail crime

For the third year in a row, the National Retail Federation is hosting a “Combating Retail Crime Day” in a final effort to pass the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, a bill introduced in both houses of Congress last year.

Its provisions include expanding federal prosecution of crimes related to organized retail crime; criminal discretion under federal money laundering laws; and establishing an Organized Retail Crime Coordination Center within the Department of Homeland Security.

On Thursday, the NRF will host a Zoom call (closed to the press) billed as a “one-hour overview of the current state of retail crime.” [to] Learn how you can advocate for solutions to combat ORC.” The group also encourages participants to send messages and make phone calls to members of Congress.

With this congressional session quickly coming to an end and bills relevant to the ORC still in committee, there is little chance the legislation will become law this time. That may be why this year's event is smaller compared to 2023, when NRF brought 70 retail asset protection leaders from nearly 30 retailers to Washington to lobby for legislation. They held 65 meetings in lawmakers' offices, helping the bills gain 36 new sponsors and bringing the total to more than 100, according to NRF. The effort earned an award for “Best Lobby Day.”

This year, Congress is not in session on Retail Crime Day, so there will be no press conferences or meetings in parliament buildings. Participants conduct store tours with members of Congress in their districts throughout the month to highlight the impact of retail crime.

“We continue to pursue all options for implementation [this legislation] before the end of the 118th Congress,” Mary McGinty, NRF vice president for communications and public affairs, said via email.

However, the fate of the bill remains uncertain even if it is reintroduced in the next Congress. Although it enjoys bipartisan support, last year a member of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee's Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement and Intelligence Subcommittee told David Johnston, NRF vice president for asset protection and retail operations, that lawmakers needed better data to proceed. Weeks earlier, the NRF pulled statistics from a special report on retail crime after Retail Dive discovered erroneous statistics.

NRF now cites its latest shrinkage survey, covering 2022 and released a year ago, noting that “more than two-thirds (67%) of respondents said they saw an increase in violence and aggression compared to last year by ORC perpetrators.” These surveys, which the organization conducted for three decades, are no longer published.

Instead, the NRF is working on releasing new crime data, which McGinty said will be available “in the near future.” In a September press release, the NRF noted, “It can be difficult to comprehend the enormous impact of ORC.”

But it's not entirely clear how big it is. According to several experts, visibility into shrinkage is poor, and asset protection industry experts are divided on how much is lost to theft in general or ORC in particular. This is partly because reliable data is scarce and the terminology is complicated.