Last year President Obama traveled the Nation, claiming he was fighting against a “do-nothing Congress”.
He was pointing his finger squarely at the House of Representatives — controlled by the Republicans — implying they were sitting on their thumbs while the country struggled. Unfortunately, that’s now what some of us would call “the truth”.
The truth is that the Republican controlled House of Representatives passed (among others) TWENTY-SEVEN bills that would create an environment that would foster job creation! That’s absolutely great! But it’s only 1/3 of the legislative processes. Next, those bills go to the Senate. If they’re passed there they are sent on to the President for his signature.
So where are those 27 job creating, economy stimulating bills now? They’re sitting in the Senate. Why? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) refuses to bring them up for a vote. Doesn’t mean that the Democrats (Obama is a Democrat, in case you forgot) are holding up job creation!
Senate Republicans stand behind these bills. Senate Democrats that are up for re-election stand behind these bills. The rest of the Senate Democrats are in standing behind Sen. Reid and President Obama, refusing to help create jobs and grow our economy!
What do these 27 bills do? They clean up the tax code, reduce burdensome regulations that make it too costly and time consuming to hire new employees, and open up the domestic energy market for job creation. Sounds pretty simple, no? Each of the bills would make it easier for businesses to actually create jobs by removing the uncertainty surrounding taxes and regulation.
President Obama has a history-making opportunity! Twenty-seven bills focusing on job creation in one year is more than the President and the Democrats passed while they were in complete control of Congress!
Removing that uncertainty would immediately allow our economy to begin to fully recover, and the following bills will aid in that recovery:
Jobs and Taxes:
- H.R.3630, The Middle Class Tax Relief & Job Creation Act of 2011, would extend the payroll tax cut for one year, extend unemployment insurance benefits and put in place another “doc fix.”
- H.R.3012, the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2011, would remove the cap on annual work visas for highly-skilled immigrants so that we can attract the best and brightest the world has to offer.
- H.R.3094, the Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act, would allow businesses no less than 14 days to prepare a case against workforce unionization, so that they may better inform employees about the costs of unionization.
- H.R.2930, the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act, would allow startup and small businesses to be exempt from registering with the SEC so that they could get the capital they need without all the regulatory obstacles.
- H.R.2940, the Access to Capital for Job Creators Act, would give small businesses access to more capital so that they could get up and running and create new jobs.
- H.R.1965 would redefine how large a business has to be before it must register with the SEC and deal with all the costs and regulations associated with such registration.
- H.R.1070, the Small Company Capital Formation Act of 2011, would increase the amount of securities a company must offer before being subject to SEC rules and regulations, which would help small businesses.
- H.R.1904, the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act of 2011, would allow for new copper mining in the southeast Arizona region, which is currently on land owned by the federal government.
- H.R.2587, the Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act, would keep the NLRB from suing any more companies for any reason. This came in response to the NLRB’s lawsuit against Boeing for moving to a non-union state.
Regulations:
- H.R.910, the Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011, would stop the EPA from regulating any naturally-occurring substance in the name of global warming. This would make it easier for businesses to continue operating and not lose jobs.
- H.R.1315, the Consumer Financial Protection Safety and Soundness Improvement Act of 2011, would replace the single leader of the CFPB with a five-member board in order to make it fairer. While conservatives want Dodd-Frank completely repealed, this is a good step towards cushioning the blow of the CFPB in the meantime.
- H.J.Res.37, a disapproval of the “net neutrality” act, which would stop the FCC from regulating the internet.
- H.R.872, the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2011, would stop the EPA from regulating pesticides that are already being regulated by Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. The EPA should not be double-regulating anything.
- H.R.1633, the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act of 2011, would keep the EPA from enforcing their farm dust regulation, which does exactly what it sounds like and would absolutely cripple farmers.
- H.R.10, The REINS Act, would require a vote of Congress to pass any new major regulation with an economic impact of over $100 million. No longer would regulators be able to pass regulations that no one knows about.
- H.R.3010, the Regulatory Accountability Act of 2011, would redefine what a “major” regulation is and require regulators to take into account jobs and economic growth when considering new regulations.
- H.R.527, the Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act of 2011, would force regulators to fully consider the impact of new regulations on small businesses, not just major corporations, before passing any new rules.
- H.R.2273, the Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act, would allow the EPA’s coal ash regulations to be handled by the individual states, so they could assess their individual needs and be better able to meet those needs without destroying jobs and raising energy costs.
- H.R.2681, the Cement Sector Regulatory Relief Act of 2011, would halt the EPA’s MACT rules from taking effect. These rules would absolutely decimate the cement industry if allowed to be implemented.
- H.R.2250, the EPA Regulatory Relief Act of 2011, would stop the EPA’s boiler MACT rules, which, like the cement rules, would cost tens of thousands of jobs while doing almost nothing to improve air quality.
- H.R.2401, the TRAIN Act, would require the EPA to provide cumulative and incremental analyses of its rules and regulations, most notably the effect such rules would have on jobs.
- H.R.2018, the Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011, would stop the EPA from issuing new water quality standards when a state and the EPA has already adopted current standards and any change would cost jobs.
Energy:
- H.R.1938, the North American-Made Energy Security Act, would ensure the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, a project that would create thousands of jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
- H.R.2021, the Jobs and Energy Permitting Act of 2011, would remove the needless regulations that stand in the way of extracting oil off the shores of Alaska.
- H.R.1231, the Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act, would open up the Gulf of Mexico to new offshore oil permits, something the Administration claims is already happening, but due to purposefully slow approval processes, we know is false.
- H.R.1229, the Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act, would set deadlines for permit applications, and ensure safety by requiring new permits for new drills that are significantly different in design than the current ones.
- H.R.1230, the Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act, open up the Gulf and the East Coast for new oil and gas drilling leases in order to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and lower the price of gas.