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December 12th, 2019 | Published by NEW Construction AllianceLeaders from the construction and manufacturing industries recently met with President Donald J. Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and key cabinet members to discuss the state of their industries.
Among the key topics discussed were the negative impact of over-regulation, steel tariffs, technology’s role in upgrading the industry and growing the workforce.
Drew DeWalt—co-founder of Rhumbix, a construction technology firm—told the president that one of the most common complaints he hears when visiting clients across the country is about onerous, out-of-date regulations.
"I think the regulation piece, candidly, is a bigger opportunity—that everybody is championing around this table—so that you can actually look for opportunities to remove duplicative regulations from the federal, state, and local level that actually drive even more efficiency," DeWalt stated."Because it’s the second-largest industry in the nation, and if you can put more juice in the tank there, you can get even better results."
The president agreed saying, “A lot of the things we are doing are based on common sense,” and promising to continue his administration’s “bold deregulatory campaign.”
DeWalt also shared that many of his customers say that the construction industry is booming more than it ever has and that the main thing slowing their growth, besides burdensome regulation, is “finding enough people to do the work.”
He continued by offering that “if we can...drive more people and encourage more people to join the trades, which is a lucrative individual business and can prop up this part of the economy, that would be welcomed.”
DeWalt’s comments highlight the importance of bringing the construction industry together in Northeast Wisconsin to address our workforce shortage. Working together makes every construction company stronger—now and in the future.
You can read the whole story about the White House meeting here.