Our nation continues to struggle with high unemployment and a great recession that feels too much like a great depression for the millions of Americans looking for work. 

We’ve seen small businesses owners, the bedrock of our economy and our job growth, increasingly strangled by paperwork and regulatory obstacles that make doing business more difficult.

As a small businessman, Senator Manchin believes that to create a thriving economy and jobs we must lessen the burdens of unnecessary rules and regulations. Bureaucrats should not be able to regulate what has not been legislated. We need to make government work smarter, and its agencies operate more efficiently and effectively. We’re not asking government to be our provider; we want government to be our partner.

To that end, Senator Manchin’s first piece of legislation in the U.S. Senate, the EPA Fair Play Act, focused on reining in the Environmental Protection Agency following its wrong-headed decision to revoke a permit for the Spruce Mine in West Virginia after that permit was already granted and people were going to work. Investment in the mine was estimated to reach $250 million, and the operation would have created about 200 good jobs with benefits. By changing the rules at the end of the game, the EPA signaled that no government decision is final, and no investment is safe. This undoubtedly has a chilling effect on investment and is detrimental to job creation not just in coal mining, but in every industry in this country that relies on a permit from any government agency.

Senator Manchin was proud to be the lead Democratic in the successful effort to repeal the 1099 mandate of the new health care law. The provision would have required businesses, charities and churches to file an IRS form for any transaction greater than $600, which undoubtedly would have created a heavy burden for small businesses, cost jobs, and hurt the overall economy.

Senator Manchin has also announced legislation that will help Washington stay laser-focused on job creation. The Jobs Score Act would require the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to determine the number of jobs that would be created, protected, or lost should a specific piece of legislation become law. This bill will make debates about jobs more transparent and concrete, giving lawmakers a solid basis of information for decision-making. 

Senator Manchin also believes that freeing ourselves from our dangerous dependence on foreign oil will spur job creation all over this great nation. He believes we must develop a national energy plan that uses all of America’s vast domestic resources, and he has strongly encouraged research and investment into new technologies here at home.

Senator Manchin believes that by using all the domestic resources we have and employing new technologies, America can free itself from foreign oil while also creating good-paying American jobs.