By Governor Brad Little

It’s National Small Business Week, a fitting time to reflect on the ways President Donald Trump and the State of Idaho are supporting small business – the backbone of our economy.

We’ve been working with President Trump and his administration to put people over paperwork by reducing the volume and cost of regulation.

President Trump created the Governors’ Initiative on Regulatory Innovation to extend his historic regulatory reform to every level of government. The initiative aims to cut regulations and costs, advance occupational licensing reform, and better align state and federal regulations to support small businesses above all.

President Trump targeted the behemoth National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, for change. Idaho’s congressional delegation and I wholeheartedly backed his effort and will do everything we can to support the transformation, which enables much-needed transportation and land management projects to move forward more quickly while maintaining necessary environmental protections and public input.

Exceeding his own 2-for-1 promise, President Trump has cut eight regulations for every new significant rule, saving American households an estimated $3,100 each year.

Idaho has done our part, too. We became the least regulated state in the nation last year when we cut and simplified 75-percent of regulations in a matter of months.

And our work isn’t done. My Zero-Based Regulation plan earlier this year ensures Idaho regulations remain streamlined and simple moving forward.

All these steps prevent small businesses from wasting time and money on compliance costs, enabling more resources to go toward innovation and creating jobs.

I was pleased to join President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at the White House this summer to continue our shared push for regulatory reform to support small businesses.

In Idaho’s response to the pandemic, we’ve also been in lockstep with the President.

From contact tracing to expansion of testing to our Idaho Rebounds plan, we have followed the President’s guidance and leadership and implemented response measures that have protected lives and put Idaho in a leading economic position amid the global pandemic.

Idaho also has benefitted from close and regular communication with the Trump Administration as we navigate the best ways to allocate our federal coronavirus relief dollars to respond to the pandemic and accelerate a strong economic rebound.

Those strong relationships have resulted in the availability of Idaho Rebound cash grants to small businesses, Return to Work incentives to get workers back on the job safely, unemployment tax savings for small businesses and other employers next year, and a public safety initiative that ensures local communities are prepared to respond to the pandemic and provides a 10-20 percent reduction in property taxes this year across participating cities and counties.

All these steps support our number one employer – small businesses.

Idahoans can expect continued partnership between the state and the President moving forward to ensure a strong and smart pandemic response and the continuation of conservative principles of governing.

# # #

480 words