Missouri Chamber of Commerce, McCaskill Talk Growing Job Opportunities

Press Release

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill met with the Missouri Chamber of Commerce to discuss ways to continue boosting job and business opportunities in Missouri.

Click HERE for more photos from the meeting.

"We've got to make sure we don't blow up Missouri's economy by walking away from trade deals without making sure that our producers and manufactures are protected," McCaskill said. "I'm fighting to bring critical infrastructure investments to our state like rural broadband and continuing my effort to cut unnecessary red tape for Missouri's businesses--and I'm always grateful for the opportunity to talk with the Missouri Chamber about how best to do it."

McCaskill, a longtime advocate for farmers and ranchers in Missouri, raised the alarm over threats to Missouri's agriculture producers and manufacturers in the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and from threats of retaliation from new high tariffs on steel and aluminum at a Senate Finance hearing earlier this week with the Trump Administration's trade chief. Last year, McCaskill joined her Republican colleagues in seeking protections for Missouri agriculture producers in NAFTA renegotiations, and urged the Trump Administration to conduct a robust economic analysis to evaluate how any changes to NAFTA would affect Missouri's crop and livestock sectors.

Cutting red tape, creating good-paying jobs, and expanding small business opportunities for Missourians has been a top priority for McCaskill since being elected to the Senate. McCaskill helped shape recently-passed bipartisan legislation to makes a series of commonsense fixes to assist small banks and give them the flexibility they need to lend to Missouri customers. These fixes will help enable community banks and credit unions to better serve their communities and stay in business without being gobbled up by the largest banks, and less able to lend to Missourians--while leaving in place the regulations that keep Wall Street accountable and target the risky behavior that caused the financial crisis.

McCaskill is currently working with Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio on a plan to make improvements to their Federal Permitting Improvement Act. The Senators' bill--which was signed into law in 2015--was designed to streamline and speed up the federal permitting process for the largest and most complex projects, which were laden with an uncoordinated federal review process. McCaskill's work to pass the legislation was cited by Daniel Mehan, President and CEO of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry as, "a real breath of fresh air for infrastructure around the country."

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