ST. PAUL, Minn. – Republican Senator Justin Eichorn (Grand Rapids) joined business, labor, and legislative leaders at a press conference on Thursday to highlight the importance of reforming Minnesota’s permitting process.

“We need to work together to get the wheels of industry moving in this state again,” Eichorn said. “Minnesota has lost thousands of jobs to more competitive states and that shouldn’t happen–we have the best workforce in America. Permitting reform has been talked about for a long time, and this year we have one of the strongest coalitions I’ve seen thus far, so it’s time to get the ball rolling and the wheels turning.”

Reforms are needed across all industries in Minnesota. Democrats passed limited reforms in 2024 which focused solely on green energy projects to ease compliance with extreme, costly energy mandates further illustrating the need to make Minnesota’s regulatory environment more friendly.

According to a Minnesota Chamber of Commerce report, between 2020-2022, Minnesota lost over $6 billion in expansion investments to other states and over 4,500 jobs. Locally, Huber Engineered Wood announced in 2023 it would cancel its plans to build an oriented strand board (OSB) facility in Cohasset emphasizing the need to ease the burdensome regulatory process to expand economic growth in Minnesota.

Watch Eichorn’s remarks here.