U.S. Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-NC) addressed home furnishings industry executives at the American Home Furnishings Alliance (AHFA) 2026 Regulatory Summit held this week at The Conference Center at Guilford Technical Community College.
Harrigan, who represents North Carolina’s 10th District, acknowledged there are “a lot of headwinds” facing the manufacturing sector today.
“Having built a manufacturing business myself, I’ve seen how quickly those pressures can affect decisions,” he said.
In early 2015, while still serving on active duty in the U.S. Army, Harrigan and his wife, Rocky, launched a firearms company from their home near Fayetteville, North Carolina.
“One of the things I learned is how the regulatory regime impacts business,” he told the audience of about 100 industry compliance executives who had spent the day digesting updates on key federal regulations.
In his October 30 weekly email to constituents, Harrigan noted his visit to the AHFA event and described North Carolina as a center of American furniture manufacturing for generations, supporting thousands of jobs “and helping build the economies of communities across our state.”
Harrigan also discussed the uncertainty that frequently changing tariffs create for manufacturing decisions in the home furnishings industry, emphasizing his view that “tariffs need to be fair.” He strongly urged industry executives to take advantage of opportunities to meet with congressional representatives in person to express concerns about trade policies or other issues that impact manufacturing and import operations.
“The more face time you get with members of Congress, the better off your industry will be,” he said.
The two-day Regulatory Summit examined a broad range of compliance issues affecting the home furnishings industry, including prospective formaldehyde requirements for upholstered furniture and the continued expansion of extended producer responsibility laws for packaging. Additional sessions addressed product safety, PFAS reporting, supply chain due diligence, wood sourcing and emerging European regulations.