Business Leaders to Join Boehner at Obama’s Jobs Speech

Lachlan Markay / September 08, 2011

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is looking to make a point with his invitee list at the president’s address to the joint session of Congress on Thursday evening. He will be hosting 12 individuals of various private ventures in an effort to drive home the importance of the private sector in any effort to spur job creation.

“The Speaker’s guests are all employers who have run into unnecessary Washington-made barriers as they’ve tried to create jobs,” a release from Boehner’s office noted. Among those attending is Gibson Guitars chief executive Henry Juszkiewicz, whose company has been subject to an invasive investigation by the Justice Department over wood that was, DOJ claimed, illegally imported from India. Gibson has disputed the grounds for that investigation.

The Heritage Foundation also stressed the importance of eliminating regulatory barriers in anticipation of the president’s jobs address. Thursday’s Morning Bell noted:

In the first six months of the 2011 fiscal year, 15 major regulations were issued with annual costs exceeding $5.8 billion. Since Inauguration Day, the Obama Administration imposed 75 new major regulations with annual costs of $38 billion. The regulations that are on the books–and the ones that are yet to come–drive up the cost of doing business, discourage investment, and leave businesses waiting on the sidelines until they have more certainty about their future. Instead of regulating more, Washington should end the regulatory assault, eliminate unnecessary regulations, and free our businesses to grow and create jobs.

Here is the full list of guests, as posted on Speaker Boehner’s website:

• Spencer Weitman is the President of National Cement, which recently suspended construction of a new $350 million cement kiln in Ragland, AL due to regulatory obstacles.  The construction project would have created more than 1,500 construction jobs and 20 new full-time operational positions, but was determined too costly and unpredictable because of proposed changes to EPA Clean Air Act regulations. The obstacles encountered by National Cement are on the list of “Top 10 Job-Destroying Regulations” identified in Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) August 29 memo outlining the legislative agenda for the remainder of the year.
• Rock Katschnig is a corn and soybean farmer of 32 years from Prophetstown, IL. Hurt by a stream of harmful federal regulations, Katschnig appealed to President Obama at an Atkinson, IL town hall last month, pleading, “Please don’t challenge us with more rules and regulations from Washington D.C. that hinder us.” The president replied, “Don’t always believe what you hear.” Despite President Obama’s statement, one proposed regulation on “particulate matter” (dust) would devastate Katschnig’s industry and destroy many farming jobs. The obstacles encountered by Mr. Katschnig are on the list of “Top 10 Job-Destroying Regulations” identified in Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) August 29 memo outlining the legislative agenda for the remainder of the year.
• Eric Treiber is the CEO of Chicago White Metal Casting, a third-generation family-owned die casting company employing 250 workers in suburban Chicago. Jobs at White Metal Casting are being threatened by increased costs associated with excessive federal regulations, in particular Clean Air Act and utility MACT regulations. White Metal Casting has also been forced to dedicate multiple employees to the task of complying with existing federal regulations.
• Lisa Ingram is the COO of White Castle, a 90-year old family-run company that serves signature “slider” hamburgers. Excessive federal regulations – current and proposed – have put a strain on White Castle, contributing to a plant closure in New Jersey and slowing the company’s ability to create new jobs.  The new health care law, for example, has not only jeopardized White Castle’s ability to provide health benefits to its employees, but one provision alone could increase costs so dramatically that it would destroy hundreds of jobs.
• Jim Plante is CEO of Pathway Genomics, a 100-person San Diego-based biotech startup that developed a genetic testing product for consumers. Last year, Pathway partnered with a major drugstore chain to help market their product – a move that would have enabled Pathway to hire 100 additional workers. Despite being in compliance with all available FDA regulations, the FDA attacked Pathway in the media following the announcement of the partnership. The drugstore chain consequently backed out, and Pathway was unable to create those 100 new high-paying jobs.
• Ignacio Urrabazo is president of Commerce Bank of Laredo, Texas, a small community bank with $450 million in assets. Urrabazo would like to lend more money to local businesses to help create more jobs in Laredo, a border community with an unemployment rate nearly 10 percent higher than the state of Texas as a whole. Unfortunately, current FDIC regulations have kept him from lending to qualified businesses. Urrabazo believes excessive federal regulations will soon put community banks out of business.
• John “Jack” Earle is the Managing Partner of Earle Enterprises LP and is a multi-unit franchisee of McDonald’s restaurants in Southeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey. Mr. Earle also serves as the Chairman of the International Franchise Association. Excessive regulations imposed by the health care law and Dodd-Frank, the ongoing threat of tax hikes, and regulatory overreach by agencies like NLRB, have hamstrung Earle and other franchisers with uncertainty and stifled their ability to create new jobs.
• Glenn Rieger is a General Partner at NewSpring Capital, a private equity fund in suburban Philadelphia that provides capital for growth and expansion-stage businesses. A lead investor in more than 50 mid-Atlantic businesses of all sizes, NewSpring’s ability to support job creators is being hampered by excessive regulations from Sarbanes-Oxley, which is costing them millions of dollars annually.
• Safi Bahcall is the CEO of Synta, a biopharmaceutical company focused on creating new drugs for treating cancer. Hampered by an increasingly uncompetitive American business environment, Bahcall is advocating for the research and development tax credit to be made permanent. More favorable tax incentives in France and Canada have encouraged Synta to out-source work to Canada and the company is currently weighing the potential of moving American jobs to France.
• Kaleil Isaza Tuzman is the CEO of KIT Digital, a 1,200-employee publicly traded video technology company. KIT faces considerable costs as a result of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance regulations. A first generation American with Colombian heritage and fluent in Spanish, Isaza Tuzman was a U.S. special trade representative in Colombia and Mexico under the Clinton and Bush administrations, and is a strong proponent of passing the U.S. -Colombian Free Trade Agreement that the president has yet to submit to Congress.
• Chris George is the CEO of CMG Finance, a mortgage company in the San Francisco Bay area employing 370 people. Hurt by increased health care costs and higher taxes from the new health care law, CMG Finance says the uncertain business environment created by the Obama Administration is preventing them from hiring an additional 15 to 20 workers.
• Henry Juszkiewicz is CEO of the Gibson Guitar Company. Armed federal agents have twice raided Gibson Guitar’s facilities. Why? Unelected Washington bureaucrats won’t say. No charges have been filed and federal regulators have not explained to the company what may have been done wrong or how to rectify the situation.
• Gordon Logan is CEO of Sport Clips, a hair salon chain with over 800 stores. If not for the environment of uncertainty created by Washington, Logan estimates he would have opened 50-100 new stores over the past three years. Instead of hiring new workers, Sports Clips franchise owners are struggling with the new health care law’s burdensome costs and mandates, and considering canceling existing health coverage for current employees. Logan also struggles with access to capital, complicated by government-created uncertainty.