Issue Position: Jobs and the Economy

Issue Position

Senator Warner recognizes that our nation faces real challenges in balancing the need to bring down the federal deficit with the need to invest in our long-term economic prosperity. While working to get our economy back on track, he will remain an advocate for responsible investments and common-sense regulatory reform to improve our nation's ability to compete in the global economy. Senator Warner will continue to push Congress to address the foreclosure crisis and shore-up the real estate market. He'll also use his business experience to look for new ways to keep credit flowing to consumers and small businesses, and to give entrepreneurs access to the capital they need to get new businesses going.

Senator Warner's Progress:

Senator Warner re-introduced the Startup Act 3.0 to encourage investment in new businesses and help accelerate the commercialization of university research. This legislation would also create Entrepreneur Visas and STEM Visas for highly-educated and entrepreneurial immigrants to stay and create jobs in the United States.

The Senate Finance Committee passed the bipartisan Startup Innovation Credit which is based on language included in Senator Warner's Startup Act 3.0. The Startup Innovation Credit allows startups to claim the popular Research and Development tax credit, helping startups jumpstart the economy by growing their business and creating new jobs.

The Virginia Small Business Financing Authority received a second round of funding of $5.9 million in April 2014 from the U.S. Treasury through the State Small Business Credit Initiative Program. Senator Warner helped craft this program and fought for its inclusion in the "The Small Business Jobs Act", signed into law by President Obama in 2010.

Senator Warner has hosted a series of events across Virginia examining how crowdfunding can be used as a tool to increase startup businesses' access to capital, and to help grow existing small and medium-sized businesses.

Senator Warner co-sponsored the bipartisan Building a Stronger America Act of 2012 (S. 3479) to strengthen the American manufacturing by ensuring that trade laws are enforced and streamlining federal trade and export programs. This legislation included provisions from Senator Warner's America Recruits Act (S. 1247), a bipartisan effort to create of new manufacturing jobs here in America through competitive grant programs and strengthen worker training and industry certification programs.

Senator Warner joined a bipartisan group of Senators to successfully add a key amendment to the Wall Street reform legislation to protect the ability of "angel investors" to support small business startups that will be vital to job creation.

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