The U.S. Chamber of Commerce took on President Donald Trump over the partial government shutdown and trade tensions, urging him to resolve his differences with Congress over a border wall and ease tariffs that have roiled markets.
“We’re pushing our leaders to restore responsible governing,” Thomas Donohue, the chamber’s president, said in his annual address on American business on Thursday as the shutdown extended into a 20th day. He also urged Trump to abandon tariffs and “advance strong new trade deals” to stoke U.S. growth.
Donohue said the country’s top business lobby is changing the way it evaluates whether legislators are advancing the group’s interests, and is reforming its scorecard for lawmakers for the first time in 40 years.
A preview of the scorecard, which tallies how members voted on legislation the group has identified as important to the business community, will now value leadership and bipartisanship each as 10 percent of the overall score.
“Lawmakers should be rewarded for reaching across the aisle -- not punished,” he said.
The chamber spent $15.2 million in the 2018 election cycle, but didn’t support a single Democratic candidate, according to federal data. Its political action committee leaned heavily to the GOP as well. It gave $248,999 to Republican candidates for the House and Senate compared to $53,500 for Democrats.
Pushing Back
The chamber, which has historically supported Republican administrations, is pushing back on Trump’s positions on the shutdown, trade and immigration, among other issues. The group sent a letter to members of Congress on Tuesday urging a quick agreement with the White House to reopen the government and stop impeding business nationwide.
Donohue said in an interview with Bloomberg Television after his speech that he thinks the shutdown will be solved “sooner than most people think,” because it’s starting to affect businesses, federal workers and the economy.
“If it keeps going for a longer time, it is going to affect what everybody is concerned about, and that is to keep this economy going,’’ he said. “Right now, it’s time to act.”