The U.S. Chamber of Commerce today at the Business Council of Alabama endorsed Alabama Second District U.S. Rep. Martha Roby in her 2016 reelection bid.
Rob Engstrom, the U.S. Chamber’s Senior Vice president, Political Affairs and Federation Relations, and National Political Director, endorsed Roby, R-Montgomery, at the BCA’s office.
“We are proud to be in Alabama with local business leaders to endorse Rep. Martha Roby. Martha is a rock solid conservative with a 91 percent rating from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,” Engstrom said. “So, on behalf of the millions of members and employees of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, I am proud to be in Montgomery to endorse our friend.”
Roby said she appreciated the endorsement and added, “When the chamber goes to bat for its member businesses, it also going to bat for the jobs that people in Alabama depend on for their families.”
BCA President and CEO William J. Canary said the BCA was “very proud” to endorse Roby on Jan. 28.
“Over the years we have witnessed your faith and passion an integrity that simply epitomizes your leadership,” Canary said. “Leadership demands courage, courage to take stands to be out front, and courage to marshal others, and courage to change the status quo in America.”
Engstrom said that with help from members of Congress such as Roby who was first elected in 2010, pro-business groups began to push back against threats by “folks who want to derail and sideline and hamstring the American free enterprise system.”
“This primary on March 1st and in November voters will have the opportunity to send a clear and distinct message to Washington the message they sent in 2014, who’s going to lead the American recovery?” Engstrom said. “Will it be folks like Martha Roby who value the American free enterprise system or will it be people who continue to double down on Barack Obama’s failed liberal policies that target America’s job creators and don’t value the free enterprise system?”
Roby said her service in Congress “is about fighting for the policies that grow our economy and create good paying jobs for the people to support their families.”
“But too often Washington gets in the way with policies and politics,” Roby said, citing regulations that have created a unelected fourth branch of government.
“This regulatory state makes it difficult for businesses to be productive and support jobs, whether it’s the (Environmental Protection Agency) or the Labor Department or some other federal agency,” she said. “They turn out rule after rule after rule that tie up employers in red tape.”
Engstrom said that Roby’s 91 percent pro-business rating from the chamber is “the highest rating in the Alabama delegation.”
“She values the free enterprise system, she supports the highway bill – this is the table top of the American economy,” Engstrom said. “She helped lead the charge against the president’s environmental extremist agenda pushing back against the clean power plan … and helped Alabama farmers push back against the Waters of the United States act that continues to attack America’s job creators in unprecedented form and fashion.”
Roby said she supported the recently passed transportation bill that returns Alabama taxpayer money to the state for road and bridge construction and maintenance.
“Unfortunately there are people who said they would have voted against the highway bill in the name of political purity,” she said. “I’ll let them explain that.”
Engstrom said Roby supports American energy exploration and legislation such as the Keystone XL pipeline. “This is a conservative idea to help create jobs here in Alabama and across the country,” he said.
Roby said she has proudly fought “this regulatory state” since her first term.
“I look forward to making even more progress next year, God willing, with a more conservative president,” she said. “I won’t play politics with policies that affect jobs, whether it’s against military cuts or supporting the farm bill, or efforts to gut Medicare. I’m going to always put Alabama first.”
The BCA is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s exclusive Alabama affiliate.