{"id":83355,"date":"2025-12-10T17:53:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T17:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/83355\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T17:53:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T17:53:23","slug":"a-year-of-major-legislative-wins-for-texas-restaurants-chris-aslam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/83355\/","title":{"rendered":"“A year of major legislative wins for Texas restaurants,” Chris Aslam"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chris<\/a>Chris Aslam, TRA Board Chairman. Image by Noah Mangum Gonz\u00e1lez \/ Texas Border Business<\/p>\n

Texas Border Business<\/p>\n

– Advertisement –\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Roberto Hugo Gonz\u00e1lez \/ Texas Border Business<\/p>\n

Texas Border Business documented the Rio Grande Valley chapter of the Texas Restaurant Association\u2019s annual chairman\u2019s dinner, where TRA Board Chairman Chris Aslam delivered a detailed update on statewide and national legislative wins for the restaurant industry. His remarks focused on advocacy, regulatory progress, and the strong sense of community he witnessed among RGV restaurateurs.<\/p>\n

Aslam opened by thanking attendees for their warm welcome. \u201cThank you so much for welcoming me to the Valley here and being a part of tonight,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

– Advertisement –\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>From left: Seby Haddad, Chief Lending Officer & Executive VP at Lone Star National Bank; Joe Monastero, OSI and Chief Operating Officer at the Texas Restaurant Association; Chris Aslam, Chairman of the Texas Restaurant Association; Sony; and Albert Rego, co-owner of Santa Fe Steakhouse & Cantina. Image by Noa Mangum Gonz\u00e1lez \/ Texas Border Business<\/p>\n

He then turned to the TRA\u2019s work over the past year, calling it \u201can absolutely productive year.\u201d Aslam previewed that TRA\u2019s Chief Revenue Officer Joe Monastero would later discuss the \u201cstate of the industry.\u201d Still, he himself wanted to highlight key legislative achievements at both the federal and state levels.<\/p>\n

Aslam said that on the federal side, restaurateurs \u201cgot everything we could have asked for.\u201d He listed several wins: extended pass-through income deductions, further deductions for employee meals, and the extension of the estate tax exemption, which he described as especially helpful for family-owned restaurants. He also noted the importance of \u201cthe deduction on bonus depreciation,\u201d explaining that it is \u201ca huge win\u201d for operators who want to buy a business or upgrade equipment.<\/p>\n

Another area of federal success involved employees and families. Aslam highlighted \u201cfurther deduction for childcare, increasing it to 50%,\u201d saying it would help workers manage rising family costs.<\/p>\n

Turning to state-level victories, Aslam said, \u201cIt\u2019s very rare in any industry that you get more than one or two pieces of legislation passed. We\u2019ve had an incredible year on the restaurant side.\u201d He shared detailed numbers: \u201cWe blocked 55 bills that were going to be harmful to us\u2026 We were able to help write eight bills\u2026 and the TRA passed 18 bills in our favor.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Advertisement –\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Aslam said these wins directly reduce burdens on restaurant owners. One example was \u201cregulatory consistency,\u201d which he described as making it easier to get permits and build restaurants without excessive government interference. TRA also secured an exemption from the \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d proposal, which would have required restaurants to add extra labeling to menus\u2014something Aslam said, \u201cwould\u2019ve been very difficult for us to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another significant achievement was property tax relief, made possible by directing part of the state\u2019s budget surplus to lowering restaurant tax bills. He added that TRA also stopped efforts to change menu-pricing rules that would have required operators to \u201cbreak out the fees\u201d in ways that \u201ccomplicate the way our customers order.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on TRA\u2019s work, Aslam repeated the organization\u2019s guiding principle: \u201cPredictability for today and progress for tomorrow.\u201d He confirmed the completion of TRA\u2019s new three-year strategic plan, designed to position the association for continued growth as it enters its 90th year.<\/p>\n

Aslam closed by thanking the Valley chapter again, saying, \u201cYou really do have such a beautiful community you\u2019ve built here.\u201d He encouraged attendees to share their stories with him throughout the evening, calling the region\u2019s hospitality \u201cabsolutely inspirational.\u201d<\/p>\n

See related stories:<\/p>\n

– Advertisement –\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Aslam, TRA Board Chairman. Image by Noah Mangum Gonz\u00e1lez \/ Texas Border Business Texas Border Business –…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1478,40194,27,29,28,40195,40196],"class_list":{"0":"post-83355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-mcallen","9":"tag-rio-grande-valley-chapter-of-the-texas-restaurant-association","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-texas-headlines","12":"tag-texas-news","13":"tag-texas-restaurant-association-tra","14":"tag-tra-board-chairman-chris-aslam"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}