Our nation faces real challenges in balancing the need to bring down the federal deficit with the need to invest in our long-term economic prosperity. We have much to do in order to get our economy back on track, and we need responsible investments and common-sense regulatory reform to ultimately improve the ability of our nation to compete in the global economy. We still have important work to do to address the foreclosure crisis and shore-up the real estate market and we also must take steps to repair our banking system so that credit will begin flowing again to consumers and small businesses.
Senator Warner's Progress
- In June 2011, Senator Warner introduced the bi-partisan “America Recruits Act,” that provides an additional incentive to encourage overseas employers to create and locate jobs here in the United States. This legislation would allow the U.S. Department of Commerce to provide forgivable federal loans of up to $5,000 for each new job created in the manufacturing industry and maintained for at least five years within a rural or economically-distressed region of the country. Furthermore, this legislation works with employers to strengthen worker training and industry certification programs and provides avenues to expand U.S. exports.
- In March 2011, Senator Warner became a co-sponsor of the bi-partisan Building and Upgrading Infrastructure for Long-Term Development (BUILD) Act, which will create a new self-sustaining, independent infrastructure bank to help finance large public infrastructure projects such as bridges, rails and roads while also creating thousands of jobs throughout the next decade.
- In November 2010, Senator Warner authored an op/ed in the Financial Times that argued for a compromise solution on the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. The op/ed received national attention and sparked debate on the future of the tax cuts.
- In September 2010, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law “The Small Business Jobs Act.” A major part of this legislation included a program Senator Warner worked on – an expansion of an existing and effective network of state-run programs to encourage and extend needed credit to local small businesses.
- In May 2010, Senator Warner joined a bipartisan group of Senators to successfully add a key amendment to the Wall Street reform legislation to protect the ability of "angel investors" to support small business startups that will be vital to job creation.
- In March 2010, Senator Warner hosted a federal job fair in Stafford County for Virginians looking for work. More than 7,000 job-seekers attended the fair. In May, based on the overwhelming response and feedback from our March job fair, Senator Warner asked Monster.com to bring their "Keep America Working" Career Fair to Annandale. The Monster.com fair featured nearly 50 public and private employers and offered on-site interview and hiring.
- Since mid-October 2009, Senator Warner has been working with the Obama administration on a proposal to boost credit to small business owners. To learn more about his idea, click here.