USCC Great Lakes Update

Mandatory spending — entitlement spending for programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security — makes up 2/3 of all federal spending and is the largest driver of our deficits and debt. While these programs are important, we must make common sense reforms because we simply cannot address our country’s spending problem without first addressing the trillions of dollars that are spent on entitlements.

In order to reach consensus on this problem, we must first agree that there is a problem. This is where the business community must step up. As U.S. Chamber Executive Vice President Bruce Josten recently stated to a group of business leaders, “By ignoring our entitlement crisis, politicians are only accelerating America’s crisis of governability.

As you know, the U.S. Chamber has been active in educating the American public about our entitlement crisis. As part of that, we have compiled a number of tools for you to use, repurpose, and publish to support your own advocacy agenda. These links and resources can be found here.

Please stay tuned as you will be hearing more from us soon on the Department of Labor’s proposed overtime regulations.  Last week the “Protecting Workplace Advancement and Opportunity Act”  (S. 2707 / H.R. 4773)  was introduced.  This legislation will stop the Department of Labor’s misguided proposed overtime regulation from going forward and sets out the conditions for reissuing a new overtime proposal.  The Department of Labor’s final regulation is now pending at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and could be released at any time.

As you are aware the Chamber submitted extensive comments critical of the Department’s rulemaking and held a forum on February 1st documenting the many problems behind these proposed changes.  In the next few weeks we will be coming to you with a number of different ways in which you can engage on this issue. In the meantime, please visit this page for additional information and resources.

The administration has waged war on America’s business community through the regulatory agencies and various regulations from the EPA’s clean power plan, ozone and the Waters of the U.S. rules, to the Dept. of Labor’s  overtime pay, fiduciary duty and “persuader” rules, with little to no consideration of compliance costs for businesses or the public.

Regulatory reform is among the Chamber’s highest priorities this year; we are pushing harder than ever to fight the current regulations and rules, while at the same time reforming the regulatory system all together.  Passage of the “Regulatory Accountability Act” (S. 2006 /  H.R. 185) would go a long way in doing so as it would update the 70-year old federal rulemaking process by improving transparency and accountability and ensuring that the most costly and impactful rules are well-designed and tailored to accomplish their objectives without causing unnecessary damage to our nation’s economy.

The House has already passed this legislation, and now the Senate must act.  Be sure to contact your Senators and urge them to pass S. 2006, the Regulatory Accountability Act, and bring back common sense to the regulatory process. To learn more about this issue and how you can act, please visit the Chamber’s Regulatory Reform site.

 What’s the most important step the next president should take to support business growth and create jobs? Share your priorities for our nation’s next leader on Facebook or Twitter with #Dear45 or write a letter to the next president.

The Dear 45 campaign is a chance to share the business community’s policy vision with the 45^th president – from trade to taxes, education to health care. This is all about policies – NOT politics. We are highlighting the issues that are most important to the employers, executives and entrepreneurs that create opportunities across the nation. See the letters to 45 and share this with your members.