Senator Marsha Blackburn has made moves to ensure regulation has been rolled out on a laundry list of issues from AI to taxation. And while regulation is key to the success of the U.S. government, how can the Senate learn from the private sector on how to streamline their processes and get things done faster? Senator Blackburn shares more on her plans for Tennessee and the nation at large.



CEO Initiative 2023: Rules And Regulation 

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Marsha Blackburn, U.S. Senator, Tennessee

Hello. Hello, I'm back. Um US, Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of the Great State of Tennessee has served in the Senate since 2019 and is a seasoned member of Congress having previously served in the US House, which was full of drama today, by the way, in case you missed the headlines. Um She's a keen advocate of prioritizing America's technological growth and embraces the transformational benefits of A I. She believes advancements should be smart and secure and include laws that protect consumer data privacy. She emphasizes the important balance between safety and innovation and her other top priorities include reining in federal spending, streamlining the government and she says there are lessons in efficiency to be learned uh from the private sector and good for her. She's gonna be speaking to a room full of people from the private sector here you are. So we're interested in getting her take on it all. So please welcome Senator Blackburn to the stage. Thank you so much for joining us. Well, why don't we start with? Um and just forgive me. I'm, I'm from New York and I cover business. So is Washington always as exciting as it is today. And does it have to be this exciting? The mayor should answer this. Are you? But I mean, all in all kidding aside, it's, um, I remember, you know, when I started business school, we learned about how companies, what they wanted from government was stability, low political risk. And I think that's something that the US has enjoyed for a long time. Um, but, you know, shutdown seem to happen pretty often and I think deep down, we all kind of knew that they would kick it down the road. So is is this not a problem for, for uh the American economy that we have uh you know, this kind of political climate at the moment? Well, instability is always a problem in uncertainty is always an issue. And every year I am in each of Tennessee's 95 counties and there I am meeting with businesses, large and small people that are main street merchants, people that are manufacturers, people that are suppliers to the auto industry or the logistics industry. And they repeatedly talk about the effect on them of uncertainty, the effect of different administrations, changing rules, the inability to make long term plans and how that affects their, their bottom line, how it affects the ability to work with your employees and to address those workforce issues that are always top of mind. So what can we do to have a less, less toxic political climate that would lead to fewer I I like to say, let's work in a bipartisan way. And when there is something that I'm working on, I always reach out and look for someone across the aisle that I can work with. You. Mentioned A I and Senator Hickenlooper and I are working on some things that deal with technology. I'm the top Republican. He's the chairman of the consumer protection, data security subcommittee. So much of technology comes under our committee uh at the finance committee, uh, we've just passed out a bill. I've worked with Senator Wyden on dealing with pharmacy benefit managers and addressing some of the components there that need to be done. Senator Ossoff and I are working um on human rights issues at the judiciary committee. He's the chair and I'm the top Republican there. So, uh, that we work better and, you know, the interesting thing that I have found whether I was in the house or in the Senate. If you want to make change that is going to be lasting, then you need to be working in a bipartisan way and build bipartisan support. Uh, Senator Blumenthal and I have worked on a piece of legislation that deals with kids and social media. It's the Kids Online Safety Act. And we've worked on this for three years and going back into 2019 when I led the tech uh task force at the Senate Judiciary Committee. And then we started to develop this concept of how do we protect Children and deal with the mental health crisis and deal with some of the content Children are exposed to online that you would never in the physical world, expose those Children to. And we now have nearly 50 senators as cosponsors on this bill. It came out of the Commerce Committee on a unanimous vote and there are over 200 organizations in the country that are supporting the Kids Online Safety Act. And but we've taken the time to find consensus and to build that support on a broad basis and I appreciate the opportunity to do that. So I wanna talk a little bit about A I because we've not talked about an A I enough today. But, um, I can only imagine because it's quite a topic on the hill. So what, what do you see, uh, perhaps, you know, what's essential for making the USA leader in A I? Um, and what can government do to foster the industry but not get in its way and not get in its way is a big part of that, the hearings and things that we've done on A I, whether it is at Commerce Committee or a judiciary committee. Uh, every witness we have had before us has said, well, for starters, why don't we do a Federal Online Privacy Act is that you need to give people that firewall to protect their data and their information and doing that privacy standard would be a very important thing. To do. So, I, I think that as you look at it, that should be number 11 of the things we've also heard is people don't want to. There are some that say, well, get a license to innovate. And I think that's a terrible idea, innovators. Uh I, I love the fact that our nation has so many entrepreneurs and people really desire to come here and innovate and you may be working on something. And then you say, well, what if we did this and you come up with another utilization? And uh I, I think that guard rails guidelines, that is a good thing to do has done kind of a framework uh that they've put in place where they look at mapping out what you're doing, measuring um then managing through some of the risk and as as we move forward, those are good things to keep in mind. I do appreciate the fact that members are beginning to hear more and learn more. One thing we do have to keep in mind is that Congress will never ever pass bills that are going to keep pace with technology. And because of that, you need to be light touch and focus on the environment and not try to regulate to a technology. And that's one of the lessons we've learned as you look at the music and entertainment industry, which is so important to my state. Um Well, speaking of your wonderful state, um I wanna, and we, we're, we're grateful that you like Nashville. You, Nashville is amazing. Except for the Bachelorette Industrial Complex with all the drunkenness on it and, and I love, I love Memphis too, but you don't wanna get on a beer wagon. No, I wanted ear plugs and I found them at the local Walgreens. But, um, but all kidding aside, I mean, it's, it's been great to see a city like Nashville emerge as, you know, from a regional city to really uh it's booming. But uh the next question has to do with talent attraction. And you know, CEO S talk about uh labor shortages. So whether unskilled but also very skilled and not enough uh visas for the super talented. So, you know, there's immigration is such a hot button issue. So where do you fall on? How can and workers? Well, there are a couple of things that I think we need to do and in our state, we are focusing on some of these developing uh emerging technologies. And when you look at Chattanooga, they're doing a lot of work in quantum and looking at that workforce. Ut Chattanooga is very focused on that. And they're working with Oak Ridge National Labs, you know, the fastest computer on the face of the earth is in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. And uh the quantum work that is being done there is really quite exciting and so they're really quite focused on that. And um the Knoxville area, you see a lot of work being done in fintech. Uh Some of the early fintech companies kind of started in Tennessee. They were outgrowths of other things, the health care industry, of course, and some of the state of work that is being done there in health care in Nashville. And then you see classes that are being offered that are specific to that and to that helps information technologies uh to fostering some of this education and innovation. Likewise, our state has put an emphasis on that highly skilled labor through what we call tas, which are our um our schools, Tennessee College of Applied Technology. And this is something that students in high school can have dual enrollment and then be ready to move forward. And uh growing this workforce is something that we have placed a tremendous amount of activity on when it comes to immigration. This is why that legal immigration system and individuals from all over the world that want to come here and work there needs to be that path for that visa. We hear this from companies in Tennessee companies that are in need of engineers, companies that we want their R and D to be in Tennessee like blue oval city that Ford and SK are doing in West Tennessee. Uh We want that R and D center here. We don't want that to end up somewhere. Would you like the federal government to increase the number of H one BS and just make it easier for a talented. I think the thing is let's settle down and let's look at, uh, how we make certain that we address the issue. You and I don't know what all of those answers are going to be. I don't think anybody does. If it were easy, it would have been done years ago. And, uh, you have companies that are moving into Tennessee, like Oracle, like Amazon that has done a fabulous facility in Tennessee. And they talk to us regularly about specific talent that they need for specific jobs. Now, the Nashville area is home to two pretty successful and large retailers and retailers are also saying that they, there's a labor shortage around the country. Um You know, and, and there's the migrant issue and I'm just wondering why, why wouldn't we make it easier for migrants to get work permits so that it would help these such companies and retailers and, you know, I live in New York and that's really the, the discussion right now. Uh why not give migrants uh quicker access to work permits? And uh making certain that that legal immigration system is addressed is going to be important, securing the southern border is going to be important. And I hope that at some point soon we can turn our attention to those issues. Ok. We have about a couple of minutes. If there are any questions I'll uh send over the microphone. But um in terms of, um, uh, corporations and governments getting out of their way. I mean, I want to wait a little bit into the ESG debate. Uh, there's been push back, uh, as we saw in Florida but ultimately, um, isn't it up to companies to decide, uh, whether they wanna follow ESG and, and, and pursue diversity initiatives rather than, you know, what, what's your, what's your take on that? Is it, is it, uh do you think that a lot of companies are getting bullied by the zeitgeist or uh is it, you know, ultimately, should they be the ones to determine uh their diversity? What I have found in talking to companies in Tennessee? And as I said, I am in each of our 95 counties all over the state. And what they want to do is make certain that they are able to make a profit that they're going to be good employers for their employees. And Tennessee, as you know, is a wonderful, uh a wonderful place for having a business, no state income tax. And uh people really appreciate having that smaller government and coming there. Uh And they work hard to make certain that there is that right environment. And employers will talk about wanting to, wanting to be able to offer benefits for their employees, wanting to be profitable, wanting to continue to grow the company, wanting to continue to grow jobs in those communities. And then the elected officials in those communities talk about the importance of making certain that those companies can stay there and stay productive and that those are good jobs that are going to be in there. They know that uh companies have suppliers, they like having those suppliers in proximity. Uh They want companies to be successful, tell their friends, bring their friends coming there and uh see that, that growth. So I know the mayor was talking about DC being open for business. Tennessee is open for business also and uh has a done a superb job of staying at the top of that heap. Well, on that note, thank you for joining us. I did to join you and you know, it's yes, everybody go to Tennessee but not for a bachelor party or a bachelor party, but there are a million other reasons. So thank you very much for joining us. Thank you very much. Ok, and enjoy your main course. Thank you.