Local business executives gave an earful this morning to officials in the Obama Administration about what they perceive as Washington's stifling regulatory environment.
Nearly two dozen local business leaders attended the session at which a number of participants aired their frustrations to the White House Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. The panel is set to make its first recommendations this afternoon on improving the economy during President Obama's visit to Durham.
The President and his advisors convened the jobs council in part to replace the public image of Obama as a capitalist-bashing crusader with a voter-friendly portrait of national leader concerned about jobs and pocketbook issues.
(Read about a second jobs council meeting at Durham's American Tobacco Campus dealing with entrepreneurship ideas. See photos of a third jobs council meeting today at N.C. State.)
The meeting at DuPont's research and development facility in Research Triangle park focused on challenges facing the state's manufacturing sector. DuPont employs nearly 900 people in the state, 230 of them in RTP, the company's national headquarters for its Electronics and Communications division.
Many of the frustrations shared this morning related to the region's biopharmaceutical firms' relationship with the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates and approves medicine for commercial markets.
"We often get new questions from the FDA after three years of interaction," said Ronald Hill, vice-president at Pioneer Surgical, a Michigan company with a marketing division in Raleigh. "It's a very cumbersome process."
Perry Genova, CEO of Oncoscope in Durham, said in his experience, the feds treat applicants as "guilty until we prove ourselves innocent."
Among those heading the panel discussion were DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman, Intel CEO Paul Otellini, University of California economist Laura Tyson and Karen Mills, head of the Small Business Administration.
Jobs council panels have held town-hall-type meetings with business leaders in Ohio and Minnesota. Mills later said that issues that typically come up are access to capital and opportunities to export products.
The manufacturing confab was one of five such panel discussions held throughout the Triangle to highlight Obama's high-profile visit to the area. Other jobs council panels discussed issues pertaining to energy innovation, workforce training, entrepreneurship and biotechnology.
John Murawski has been a full-time newspaper reporter since 1991, with stints at Legal Times and The Chronicle of Philanthropy (both in Washington, DC), The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Palm Beach Post (in South Florida) before arriving at the N&O in December 2004. At the N&O he covers energy (nuclear, coal, renewable, efficiency), hydralic fracturing (or "fracking"), public utilities (both electric and natural gas) and health care. His beat includes Progress Energy, PSNC Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, PowerSecure International, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Biogen Idec and others. You can reach him at 919-829-8932 or
Comments
Just wondering why this
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 22:18 — BRENTCHATTINJust wondering why this Oncoscope CEO got his dander up about federal rules. According to another source, the company was created by licensing rights from Duke University (probably paid for by federal funds) and by federal assistance. Could he be using his position to spout his personal political philosphy? Is the blogger playing the same game? Just google the company name & check an old WRAL website. I'm sure the company operations & goals have changed since 2008, including their CEO, but they owe a lot of their creation to the feds that they dislike so much now.
"Ending Stifling Regulation" = Business-lead Hit Job on Consumer
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 21:00 — FauxNewsWhenever you hear corporations talking about "ending stifling regulation", what they're really talking about is a hit job on consumer rights.
If Republicans get what they want, businesses will have a license to sexually assault the middle class at will. Corporations will run amock with shanigans that make the abuses of the past decade appear pale by comparison. And if a big company cheats you, your only recourse will be to hire an attorney and duke it out in court.
Republican revolution? What we're witnessing is the biggest corporate power grab in American history, and the American people are too ignorant to realize what is happening to them as we speak.
Well, if I am going to be
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 21:33 — PhantomLordWell, if I am going to be assaulted by a corporation, I hope its the CEO of Flirty Girl Fitness, Kerry Knee.
She is hot!
RE: WELL ...
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 21:57 — FauxNewsWe're talking the likes of Bill Gates (Microsoft), Lloyd Blankenfeld (Goldman Sachs), and Vikram Pandit (Citibank) ... 10,000 showers would not be enough :).
Such insolence will not be
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 19:39 — PhantomLordSuch insolence will not be tolerate by The Messiah. Retribution will be swift and harsh!
Just don't let Obama know that Steve Jobs is actually the CEO of Apple, not Microsoft like he said today.
And they say Palin is stupid. Ha!
It's your lie. Tell it any way you want.
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 16:23 — citizen782John Murawski is an obvious corporatist spewing the propaganda and lies we've all heard so many times before: Reduce taxes on wealthy people and we'll all have jobs and get rich....FAILED. Remove regulations on industry and we will all be safer and products will be cheaper....FAILED. Only wealthy people create jobs....FAILED (nothing inspires real entrepreneurship like a desperate need for money).
I would like to hear one corporatist argument against taxation and regulation that is not a revenue generating lie, and detriment to the public, benefitting only a handful of modern day executive Robber Barons.
Hey. Have you ever run a
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 17:26 — TheLibertineHey. Have you ever run a business? Have you ever not ridden the coat tails of some business owner and risked your own money? I love how "followers" like you whine, whine, whine, but where's your investment? Where's your job creation? Keep that hand out, boy...it'll fall off before I willingly give you a penny.
pathetic redistributionists
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 17:07 — a7hyr64I'm sure there is so much you want government to do, and that will take much more money, of course. Any chance you'd like to pay for the bullwarp, jimcracks and googaws that you think are so essential to a thriving society?
Please ante up your own money, and if you must advocate redistribution, at least take the arrogance down a notch. It's unbecoming in aggressive panhandlers.
And about more jobs: don't forget that you can heave your hind parts up and go create a company that meets the needs of others and which will reward you in a voluntary exchange for the consumer surplus you create. Want more jobs, start a company and hire people. Sound complicated? The forms, applications, licenses, permits, registrations, taxes, withholding, OSHA, EEOC, EPA, workman's comp, unemployment insurance taxes and all the rest are just what you are looking for. Be a job creator!
No voices from actual working people
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 14:52 — sydfynchWashington's stifling regulatory environment? Obama as a capitalist basher? WTF is this blogger smoking?
Nothing but quotes from CEOs, VPs and lobbyists?
This blog is an insult to people who actually work for a living and struggle to survive while these CEOs and VPs complain about having to follow the laws that protect us from corporate malfeasance -- THE ONLY thing protecting us from the corporate polluters and greedy big pharmaceuticals putting out drugs that only help their stock price. Obama is hardly a Capitalist-basher. In many ways he's more conservative than Clinton ever was and Clinton is basically what Republicans used to be before Reagan started his war on the middle class.
Either this blogger/reporter didn't bother to try to find anyone below executive level or there were no people allowed in the room who weren't CEOs, VPs or lobbyists for CEOs and VPs. Either way this blogger/reporter failed to provide any real information from this event.
Obama not a capitalist
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 19:42 — PhantomLordObama not a capitalist basher? Ha!
Apparently you don't listen to things he says. Such as his calling his only private sector job as being "behind enemy lines."
Obama is anti free enterprise. Period.
He has launched a war against the private sector and to date he is winning it.
I hope you don't lose your job, but when a government regulation puts you in the street, you will have gotten what you deserve.
Fwap fwap fwap
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 22:56 — BantamG0urd;)
Guilty? or just unsafe
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 14:26 — spree133Perry Genova, CEO of Onsoscope in Durham, said in his experience, the feds treat applicants as "guilty until we prove ourselves innocent."
The FDA is tasked with ensuring the safety any drug it reviews. They absolutely should treat drugs applying for approval as un-safe until proven to be safe.
Hand out ??
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 13:14 — AgentPierceWonder if the red-ink-stained N&O was standing there with its hand out for a "shovel-ready project". The N&O certainly "shovels it" for Obama on a daily basis.
Will Steve Ford get to touch Obama's robe today?
I bet...
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 17:23 — TheLibertineI bet there was some serious tingling going on for the N&O crowd being so close to the messiah. [chuckle]
bad business citizenship
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 12:54 — igliigliShows why we need a strong EPA and FDA so US businesses will not poison us in the name of profit.
And let me guess, your
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 17:28 — TheLibertineAnd let me guess, your position is based on copious research? Have you checked out how many collateral deaths that illustrious GSK flu vaccine caused? And if you want to know what a great job the EPA does, why don't you look up environmental estrogens? Oh yes, our government protects us really well. [chuckle] Go back to sleep, sheeple.