Fifteen people who make their money from an audience walked into the Dirksen Senate Office Building in mid-September and sat down with two senators who do not agree on much.

Cory Booker (D-NJ) and John Kennedy (R-LA) launched the Senate Creators Caucus, hosting a panel and reception with 15 leading creators whose work spans tech, politics, beauty, mental health, sports and lifestyle content. The kickoff panel was held at Dirksen.

The line that matters for anyone selling expertise came from Booker. "Creators represent a growing sector of the economy, but Congress and our laws haven't kept up," he said, describing a caucus that would work on "educating lawmakers, advocating for policies that have creators in mind, and ensuring that creators are recognized as legitimate small businesses."

Recognized. That is the whole fight.

Why a definition is worth money

Right now the federal government has no clean category for a person whose business is an audience. Creator Shira Lazar told Punchbowl News she is hopeful about a forthcoming Small Business Administration initiative for a regulatory code recognizing creators — a long-running complaint, because the lack of a government definition of their work complicates taxes and loans.

If you coach, consult, speak or sell courses, you already know the texture of that problem. The awkward pause when a lender asks what the business actually does. The accountant guessing at a classification. The grant program that assumes you have inventory.

A code is boring. A code is also the difference between being a business and being a hobby with a Stripe account.

"It… just makes all of this more official that this is being looked at more seriously as not just an industry but a workforce," Lazar said.

This was not a photo op week

Punchbowl reported that creators got their Senate caucus and then started hitting offices to work on their issues. Lazar described the launch as a prelude to a fly-in, where creators would push for policies including the No Fakes Act, a measure YouTube was also lobbying for that week, and which has been marked up despite concerns from some senators about its effect on online speech.

There was also friction in the room. Creators discussed tensions with traditional Hollywood content and said they wanted to be heard by lawmakers, rather than have the caucus serve as a forum for politicians looking to win over a bloc of voters.

Kennedy, for his part, set expectations low in a way his audience probably enjoyed. "What can government do for you? Frankly, the best thing government can do for you is leave you alone," he said. He also told the group: "The citizens of the world now get their information from you. They used to get it from newspapers — that has changed."

Who was actually invited

The guest list tells you which version of "creator" Washington currently has in its head. Panelists included Avery Smith of Louisiana Crawfish Company; Ian Schwartzman, CEO and co-host of the Joe Budden Network; beauty and lifestyle creator Jackie Aina; Sage Steele, former SportsCenter co-anchor; Matthew Patrick, co-founder of Theorist Media; and Emmy Award-winning wildlife filmmaker Mark Vins of Brave Wilderness. Family and mental health creators were in the mix too, including Dr. Javoris Hollingsworth of Gracie's Corner and Kati Morton. Washington Post reporter and inaugural Creator Host Dylan Wells moderated.

Beauty. Sports. Podcasting. Crawfish. Wildlife film. Mental health.

Nobody in that lineup is there as a business coach or a course seller — and yet the policy being drafted around "creator as small business" lands on exactly the same tax forms, contracts and likeness-rights questions a coach with a paid community deals with.

Both chambers, one door each

The Senate caucus follows last year's debut of the Congressional Creators Caucus in the House, giving digital entrepreneurs a channel in both chambers. YouTube said it will keep working with the Senate caucus and with House co-chairs Reps. Beth Van Duyne and Yvette Clarke.

The platforms were quick to bless it. YouTube government affairs VP Leslie Miller called creators "online storytellers, entrepreneurs, and employers in every state," and thanked the senators for the launch. Worth noticing: the company whose payout policy shapes half this economy is also the loudest voice in the hallway.

For coaches, the practical read is short. A category is being drawn. The people who show up while it is being drawn get to say what falls inside it.