US Rep. Larry Bucshon of Indiana Talks Employee Ownership

thank you Dan and thanks for all your leadership at the Aspen Institute uh we are calling a bit of an audible uh due to a featured guest this morning first of all good morning my name is Jack morard I'm the assistant director for policy analysis and executive fellow at The ruter Institute I'm also executive director of the lafet square Institute and it's my true pleasure to be introducing our next guest Congressman Larry bushan of Indiana uh the congressman represents the eth district of Indiana which encompasses all or part of 21 counties in Southern and West Central Indiana since coming to Congress representative bushan has been a champion for advancing patient centered Healthcare reforms and has been a leader in the fight to end the opioid epidemic having been just one of eight lawmakers from around the nation recognized by the coalition to stop opioid overdose in 2016 for his work on the issue first elected to the house in 2010 the congressman currently serves as a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee before coming to Congress representative bushan was a practicing physician and surgeon specializing in cardiothoracic surgery during his time in private practice the congressman performed hundreds of heart surgeries and served as president of Ohio Valley heartcare he board certified in cardio thoracic surgery by the American Board of thoracic surgery in the 115th Congress the representative introduced the ESOP business Act of 2019 a bill designed to better support 100% ESOP companies in bidding for government contracts a version of this legislation was subsequently enacted in the National Defense authorization Act of 2022 congressman bushan and his wife Katherine who is also a physician and a practicing anesthesiologist reside in vanderberg county and attend Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Evansville they have four children Congressman thanks so much for joining us [Applause] today well thank you for thank you for that great gracious introduction and um it's great to be here uh I think my role is to show that there is support in Congress for uh for esops and other innovative ideas to uh help workers have better salary better benefits and also have more input that's the key right so as was mentioned uh I'm from I'm from Evansville Indiana and uh I'm in my sth term in Congress but this is my final term I'm not running for reelection so uh that was a self-determined kind of deadline I want to do something else after this right I do servant on Energy and Commerce has broad jurisdiction but let me just say that companies that use Employee Stock ownership plans esops play a critical role in making the United States the strongest economy in the world employees of companies with ESOP structures promote innovation in their Industries and routinely have higher job and retirement security that many of uh than many of the peer their peers in other companies esops are major are a major driver Indiana's economy 167 ESOP companies in Indiana and sectors ranging from manufacturing with Jasper engin and transmissions in my district as well as banking at Old National Bank Corp there are over 27,000 employees at ESOP Statewide with a majority being small businesses with fewer than 100 employees so my view Congress must continue to support the those that utilize ESOP structures which is why as was mentioned um I introduced the ESOP business act hr20 uh 2022 during the 115th and and subsequent congresses to improve contract competition Pro the contract competition for esops more participation in DOD contracts specifically and I supported representative Jim Banks in his efforts to establish a five-year pilot program in the 2022 National Defense authorization act which was also mentioned that allows ESOP owned Department of Defense contractors to receive non-competitive Awards of follow-on contracts and I'm also co-sponsor of the pro promotion and expansion of private employee ownership act which would incentivize owners of s corporations to sell their stock to an ESOP I've also been working to bolster the supply chains of American Producers which are important to business owners and all Americans and with my friend Lisa blunt Rochester who's now running for the senate in Delaware I've introduced the promoting resilient Supply chains act or HR 6571 uh it's a bipartisan Bill uh would create a supply chain response program within the department Department of Commerce to map and monitor Supply chains and help prevent the supply chain chain shock that we just all experien primarily related to covid so I think uh my uh my speech is short but I but I think the goal here is to show that we do have people in Congress that are looking at issues about how to improve uh salary benefits and more importantly input from everyday workers my dad was a United mind worker uh Union coal miner my mom was a nurse I grew up in a town of 1500 people so uh these are important issues to me I want to make sure all Americans have equal opportunity to succeed and esops and structures like that are one of the ways that we can make that happen so I hope you have a good day today and thank you for allowing me a few minutes to speak to you have a good day