04.18.17

Hoeven Outlines Work to Provide Regulatory Relief, Build Pro-Business Climate at Bismarck-Mandan Chamber of Commerce Roundtable

U.S. Chamber Presents Hoeven with Spirit of Enterprise Award for Supporting Pro-Jobs, Pro-Growth Policies

BISMARCK, N.D. – Senator John Hoeven today held a business roundtable at the Bismarck-Mandan Chamber of Commerce with business leaders and CEOs from the Bismarck-Mandan region. Hoeven outlined his work to provide regulatory relief and build a better business climate for the nation’s job creators.

Hoeven was also presented with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Spirit of Enterprise Award in recognition of his support for pro-growth, pro-jobs policies in the Senate. The senator has received the award every year he has been in the Senate.

“We’re focusing on the fundamentals to get our economy going and growing again,” said Hoeven. “That includes rolling back burdensome regulations that have been creating uncertainty and making it harder to do business. Thank you to the Chamber for this award and I look forward to continuing to work with them to support businesses, create jobs and strengthen our economy.”

Regulatory Relief

Hoeven, a member of the Senate Appropriations and Energy Committees, has been working to reduce the regulatory burden for businesses in a number of ways including:

  • Stopping the Waters of the U.S. Rule, which has impacted small businesses from farmers and ranchers to the construction industry and energy sector. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Hoeven worked to defund the overly burdensome regulation in 2016 and 2017. In February, the president signed an executive order directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers to rescind or revise the rule.
  • Rolling back burdensome regulations hampering domestic energy production, including the EPA’s costly rules for new and existing coal generating power plants, the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) hydraulic fracturing rule for federal lands and rescinding the moratorium on federal coal leasing. Hoeven joined the president and Interior secretary to implement executive orders to stop the overly burdensome regulations.
  • Repealing the BLM “Planning 2.0” rule under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). By repealing the rule, Congress maintained multiple-use requirements for federal lands, such as for livestock grazing, and ensured that resource management planning continues to be led by local BLM field offices in coordination with state, tribal and local governments.
  • Helping introduce the Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act. This legislation would require that, during the rulemaking process, federal agencies would have to analyze the full impact of proposed regulations on small businesses. 

Providing Infrastructure Funding Flexibility 

Hoeven is working to re-introduce in the current Congress his Move America Act to help empower states to build and repair infrastructure by expanding tax-exempt funding for public-private partnerships. The Move America Act would help states fund infrastructure projects through tax-exempt bonds and tax credits to leverage additional private equity investment at a lower cost to states.

The Move America Act provides greater flexibility to help states fund important job-creating infrastructure projects that would otherwise not be built. The senator outlined this legislation to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in a meeting earlier this month.

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