Don’t Forget The “Forgotten 15” Jobs Bills
By Chairman Sam Graves
Thursday, November 3, 2011 

While the nation deals with record unemployment and businesses remain uncertain about their futures, the House of Representatives is busy working on more ways to get Americans back on the job.

This week, my House colleagues and I will vote on two ‘jobs’ bills: the Access to Capital for Job Creators Act (H.R. 2940) and the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act (H.R. 2930). Both pieces of legislation update the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations to support, instead of deter, small business financing.

Access to capital is critical for small businesses to be able to grow and hire more people. These bills are two more ways House Republicans are working to decrease onerous regulations and help small business owners create jobs.

The President and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) say they want to create jobs— but so far, this has appeared to have been merely lip service.

The House has passed over 15 bills that would make way for job creation and economic growth. But instead of working with us and moving forward with the legislative process, these bills— also known as the “forgotten 15”— are stuck in the Democratically-controlled Senate where they have been refused a vote.

The “Forgotten 15” covers a spectrum of areas to help empower small business owners, such as the EPA Regulatory Relief Act (H.R. 2250) to curtail burdensome regulations and the Veterans Opportunity to Work Act (H.R. 2433) to help curb rising veteran unemployment. There are also five bills that have been passed to lower high energy costs, by increasing domestic energy production and leading us towards energy independence.

To help move government out of the way of America’s businesses, the House passed the Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act (H.R. 2587) that would prohibit the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from dictating where an employer can and cannot locate jobs in the United States.

For example, in the South Carolina Boeing [BA  65.0198    0.6198  (+0.96%)   ] case, the NLRB filed a complaint against Boeing for creating work in South Carolina and demanded the work be transferred elsewhere.

In addition, the Consumer Financial Protection & Soundness Improvement Act (H.R. 1315) passed in July would bring oversight and accountability to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) by ensuring that one Washington bureaucrat alone is not given unlimited authority (as it is currently) to limit consumer choice, or reduce the credit available to small businesses.

And just last week, the House passed legislation (H.R. 674) to repeal the 3% withholding rule—an onerous provision that could hurt cash flow for businesses.

If President Obama and Senator Reid are as serious as they say about job creation, then it would be prudent for them to work with us on a jobs agenda.

It is possible that we can work together— passage of the three pending trade agreements with Panama, South Korea and Colombia last month is proof of this. We need more of this cooperation.

The President just unveiled his new campaign slogan, “We Can’t Wait.” Well… he’s right. Americans can’t wait for Washington to get out of the way so that economic prosperity can be restored and jobs can be created. And House Republicans won’t wait in offering policies that will help create that environment.