After one of the worst recession’s in our nation’s history and slowest recovery since World War II, the American people are seeing jobs, opportunity, and confidence come roaring back.

After promising a bold agenda called A Better Way, the 115th Congress delivered on historic tax cuts, rolling back stifling regulations, revitalizing Main Street by providing relief to community banks, and strengthening career and technical education.  We are now witnessing the lowest unemployment rate in decades, increases in take-home pay and extraordinarily high consumer confidence.

I have long advocated for a fairer, simpler and lower taxes on American families and job-creators.  That’s why I strongly supported H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.  This commonsense, historic piece of legislation helped Americans from all walks of life by creating jobs, bolstering paychecks, slashing tax burdens and repatriating American earnings.

America previously had one of the worst tax codes in the industrialized world for businesses. By reducing tax rates for businesses large and small, our bill leveled the playing field and made America the jobs magnet of the world.  H.R. 1 also threw out special-interest loopholes and consolidated deductions.  Most importantly, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act lowered individual tax rates for low- and middle-income Americans and eliminated excessive, costly taxes. That means you get to keep more of your hard-earned paycheck.

To learn more about my support for tax reform, please visit https://fairandsimple.gop/. 

Furthermore, I helped lead the fight to fix Washington through regulatory relief. The 115th Congress enacted record relief from Obama-era red tape with 15 bills to strike harmful regulations from the books.  This includes my own bill (H.J.Res. 37), signed into law, that revoked a federal contracting rule that undermines basic due process rights.

The House of Representatives also took action to add more accountability for unelected bureaucrats by making any major regulation subject to an up-or-down vote of Congress by passing the Regulations from Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act (H.R. 26). 

Finally, the House added to an agenda of regulatory certainty by passing my bipartisan bill, the Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act (H.R. 50).  This bill works to increase transparency about the costs of unfunded federal mandates and hold the federal government accountable for considering those costs before passing them on to local governments and the private sector. 

While these pro-growth policies and booming economy helps grant Americans with a renewed sense of confidence for the future, Congress needs to continue its work to meet the remaining challenges to America’s workers.

Job openings are at record highs.  In fact, the economy recently crossed an important threshold – there are now more job openings than those who are unemployed. In answer to this challenge, the Committee on Education and the Workforce approved H.R. 2353, the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, which went on to be unanimously passed by the House of Representatives on June 22, 2017. Just over a year later on July 31, 2018, President Trump signed this landmark legislation into law.

The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act is a true difference-maker for North Carolinians. The law makes crucial updates to our national workforce development by empowering state and local community leaders and improving alignment with in-demand jobs.