U.S. Economy is Improving Thanks to Pro-Growth Policies

The United States economy is looking up, thanks to the pro-growth policies implemented by the current administration and this congress. Since President Trump took office, 3 million new jobs have been created. Nearly 800,000 jobs have been created just since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was enacted in January.

Our economy is growing at a faster rate than previously expected. Prior to the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that the U.S. economy would grow 2.1 percent in 2018. Now that tax reform has been signed into law, CBO changed their outlook and now predicts that it will grow 3.3 percent this year. This is great news for employers wanting to grow their businesses and for employees looking for higher wages or new jobs.

In Congress, we’re building on this momentum by advancing legislation that rolls back costly, onerous regulations on small businesses, small-to-medium-sized financial institutions, farms and ranches so they can get back to work for their customers instead of focusing valuable time, energy and money on compliance. The president recently signed into law the bipartisan Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, of which I am an original sponsor.

This new law begins to undo the unnecessary regulations placed on smaller, local banks and credit unions under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act—financial institutions that had nothing to do with the 2008 crisis. Making sure families and businesses have access to credit when they need it is critical as we work to grow a healthy American economy, and relieving smaller financial institutions from costly, burdensome regulations frees them up to do what they do best: serve their customers and support their communities.

The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act includes seven provisions that I authored. Some of these include the Home Mortgage Disclosure Adjustment Act, which provides small banks and credit unions with data reporting relief, as well as a measure to provide relief from Dodd-Frank capital rules to banks and local governments that issue debt so banks can count high-quality municipal bonds toward capital requirements. It provides relief from the enhanced supplemental leverage ratio—or eSLR—for custody banks that service mutual funds and state and local pension plans. It also includes my provision to streamline federal rules to help small, local federal savings associations, or thrifts, expand their ability to offer loans to more families and businesses without going through a costly charter conversion process.

The law also includes a provision from my Community Bank Access to Capital Act that would make it easier for banks with less than $3 billion in assets to raise capital and grow. Another important provision included in the law is the Protecting Veterans Credit Act, which protects the credit of veterans who are awaiting reimbursements from the VA Choice program. Lastly, the law includes rural appraisal relief for instances when borrowers apply for a loan less than $400,000 and have difficulty finding a qualified appraiser—which is a fairly common occurrence in rural areas in South Dakota.

This new law, in addition to tax reform and the other pro-growth economic policies we’re advancing, will continue to boost business in America, and result in more jobs and higher wages. When businesses aren’t tied down by heavy-handed federal regulations, they are free to be innovative and reinvest into the economy.  And when smaller, local banks and credit unions don’t have to spend the majority of their time and money on compliance, they can focus on providing services to their customers. The economy is improving because the era of government-knows-best policy is finally coming to an end.

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