In a letter organized by the Competative Enterprise Institute and delivered to the United States Senate today, the Center for Individual Freedom ("CFIF") joined with a coalition of 17 free-market organization to express strong support for the confirmation of Andrew Puzder, President Trump's nominee for Secretary of Labor. 

Read the letter below, or download view it as it was delivered to the Senate here (PDF).

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January 30, 2017

Dear Senators:

On behalf of the undersigned organizations and our members, we write to express our strong support for the nomination of Andrew Puzder for Secretary of the United States Department of Labor. For the past eight years, the Labor Department has overwhelmed job creators with burdensome regulations, creating immense uncertainty for employers. This has led to a subpar economic recovery, including gross domestic product growth that has averaged less than 2 percent under President Obama. What is worse, nearly 95 million Americans remain outside the labor force.

As a longtime successful businessman and employer, Puzder understands what it takes to get Americans working again. We believe a change of labor policy at the federal level is crucial to encourage job creation and spur economic growth. Andrew Puzder would bring a welcome, fresh perspective to the U.S. Labor Department that our country needs. Over the years, he has warned about the harmful impact of overly burdensome workplace regulation, and his firsthand experience dealing with those burdens should prove invaluable in identifying and targeting regulations that do more harm than good.

During the Obama administration, the Labor Department imposed $55.7 billion in total finalized regulatory costs and added nearly 70 million hours in paperwork burden for job creators. Under the Obama Labor Department, for the first time in 35 years, more American businesses closed than launched. This decline in entrepreneurship and opportunities has made it harder for people to find work and many Americans have simply given up looking for jobs altogether.

American workers need a Labor Secretary with real-world experience creating jobs and opportunities, and we believe Andrew Puzder will fulfill that role. As House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairwoman Virginia Foxx noted in an oped last month: “Under his strong leadership, CKE Restaurants has thrived and grown to more than 3,700 restaurants worldwide. CKE restaurants and franchises in the United States employ more than 75,000 men and women.”

By making sure the Labor Department promotes deregulatory policies, Andrew Puzder can foster and encourage the business formation that makes job creation possible. Those are goals that our organizations support and all Americans can get behind.

Sincerely,

Kent Lassman
President, Competitive Enterprise Institute

Grover Norquist
President, Americans for Tax Reform

Steven J. Allen
Vice President & Chief Investigative Officer, Capital Research Center

Jeffrey Mazzella
President, Center for Individual Freedom

April Ponnuru
Senior Advisor, Conservative Reform Network

Tom McCabe
Chief Executive Officer, Freedom Foundation

Adam Brandon
President, FreedomWorks

Andresen Blom
Executive Director, Grassroot Hawaii Action, Inc.

Kristina Rasmussen
President, Illinois Policy Institute

Andrew Langer
President, Institute for Liberty

Dr. Robert McClure
President and CEO, The James Madison Institute

Lisa B. Nelson
CEO, Jeffersonian Project

Jim Amos,
President and CEO, National Center for Policy Analysis

Paul Gessing
President, Rio Grande Foundation

David Williams
President, Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Dann Mead Smith
President, Washington Policy Center

Jonathan Downing
CEO, Wyoming Liberty Group