Nicole Riley, the state director of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), announced recently that Del. James Edmunds earned a score of 100 percent on the 2016-2017 NFIB/Virginia Voting Record.

“NFIB/Virginia is the commonwealth’s leading small-business association, with 6,700 small-business members statewide,” according to a press release.

“What this means is that Del. Edmunds has stood up for Virginia’s job creators time and again on important issues such as addressing the rising costs of health care, opposing efforts to place additional mandates on the backs of small business and reforming Virginia’s regulatory structure,” Riley said in the release.

According to the release, small businesses account for 98 percent of the commonwealth’s employers and employ nearly half of Virginia’s non-government workforce, according to federal government statistics.

“Our members truly appreciate the efforts of legislators such as Del. Edmunds who help Virginia’s small businesses,” Riley said. Del. Edmunds understands the challenges facing the commonwealth’s small businesses, and our members believe he will continue to take a fiscally responsible approach to managing state government and support legislation that helps our small businesses grow and create jobs.”

“NFIB tracks the key legislative issues identified by our small-business members every session and then we tabulate a score for each Virginia lawmaker in the state House and state Senate,” organization officials said in the press release. “The NFIB voting record provides a critically important evaluation of a legislator’s attitude toward small business based on floor votes.”

“As the owner of several small businesses myself, I completely understand the challenges faced by business owners and the frustration caused by unnecessary regulations and I have always looked for ways to make the process better,” Edmunds said in the release.