Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

January 12, 2012
The Hill
Vicki Needham

If the White House and Congress can provide more certainty for businesses this year, firms will have to start spending their money to fuel a more robust economic recovery. 

Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, will call on Washington and business to work together in his annual "State of American Business" address set for Thursday morning.

"I think it's a time, as we're going to say tomorrow, for the administration and the Congress to send a clear signal of where they want to go and what the business community can expect," Donohue said on Fox News on Wednesday night.  

"And it's then the time for the business community to step up and spend their money."

Businesses are being constrained by a slew of regulations, including healthcare and Dodd-Frank, that have led to that sense of uncertainty even as the nation's economy continues its gradual recovery," Donohue said. 

"We have created such a regulatory explosion in this country with healthcare, Dodd-Frank, and environmental issues and labor issues that companies are all holding their breath," he said. "They're starting to spend money but they're asking a lot of questions — what is it going to cost me going forward, how am I going to spend my money, where am I going to spend my money, who am I going to hire." 

Businesses are facing a hard reality — they can't grow by continuing to cut their workforces, he said. 

"I think the companies are facing another reality and that is you can only make so much money cutting and being efficient and being competitive," Donohue said. 

"What we all face is we grow or we don't prosper," he said. 

"Companies are working very hard to grow. Government is calling for growth. But the bottom line is we have to work together to get it done." 

Without growth the economy will struggle to create jobs for the 13.1 million unemployed. 

Donohue said he thinks the economy is doing better than it was a year ago with rising stock markets and dropping levels of unemployment — the economy added 200,000 jobs in December and the jobless rate fell to 8.5 percent. 

The Chamber is expecting growth between 3 and 3.5 percent in the first quarter but Donohue said "but it is very clear that it will fall off in maybe the next two or three quarters" to probably around 2.5 percent or possibly lower. 

Still, he said while numbers could come in worse than those projections, there are enough positive signs of economic growth rippling through the economy that the figures could turn out better than expected. 

Donohue is expected to detail about five or six top priorities for the year that he says,"if you do them you're going to see value going up, not value going down." 

Donohue didn't outline his proposals on Wednesday night but the group has been urging the Obama administration to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which has backing from labor unions and businesses. Proponents argue building the pipeline will create 20,000 jobs whereas opponents say most of the jobs are short-term and temporary. 

He will likely suggest rooting out excessive regulations across the board while continuing to make inroads on foreign trade to increase U.S. exports. 

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