Freight Executives Tout Administration’s Focus on Regulations, Tax Reform
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s emphasis on streamlining regulations and reforming the U.S. tax code would help small businesses grow, freight executives said after a meeting at the White House on Aug. 1.
“We know we, as small businesses, we reinvest in our business,” Sherri Garner Brumbaugh, president of Ohio-based Garner Trucking, Inc., a firm with nearly 100 trucks, told Transport Topics. Brumbaugh is vice chairman of American Trucking Associations.
“I feel that they have a commitment to small businesses. They understand being in business,” Brumbaugh said.
Greene by Ken Nahigian
Tana Greene, CEO of Blue Bloodhound, LP, added that too many regulations suffocate small business owners, and debilitate the economy. Her North Carolina-based firm is an online marketplace for qualified truck drivers seeking immediate pay-by-the-run local and long-haul assignments. She’s attracted major investors.
“You cannot invest in infrastructure and growing your businesses when you’re afraid of the next lawsuit. When you’re afraid of that, you don’t know what is coming at you,” Greene explained.
White House officials met Brumbaugh, Greene and about 100 small business executives and entrepreneurs to reassure them of their commitment to enhancing economic opportunities in the coming years.
President Trump emphasized his team would begin to collaborate with Congress to overhaul the tax code. Republican leaders in the House and Senate have expressed a desire to reform the code since the start of the year, and legislative efforts are likely to advance as early as next month.
“America is on the verge of a golden age for small business,” Trump told the executives. “We’re ending job-killing regulations. … We’re eliminating the tremendous, the massive restrictions on American energy.”
On regulations, the administration’s preview of its long-term infrastructure plan calls for streamlining the permitting process in the construction and transportation sectors. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao noted the full infrastructure plan is likely to be released this fall or by the end of the year.
