Jacky Rosen Asks Business Owner About ‘Vulnerability’ Of Small Manufacturers Hit By Trump’s Tariffs

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During Wednesday’s Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee hearing, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) questioned Julie Robbins, CEO of EarthQuaker Devices, about the impact of President Trump’s tariffs.

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00:00Rosen you're recognized. We'll talk a little bit about some Nevada stories

00:06maybe how's that but because in Nevada we love our entrepreneurs our dreamers

00:10our small business owners and for those of you who don't know we're really

00:14famous for those big casinos I know that but that only makes up 1% of the

00:18businesses in Nevada 99% are small businesses and so it is really the

00:23heartbeat of Nevada and I want to build a little bit upon what Senator Shaheen

00:28talked to you about on the tariffs because the tariff impact on Nevada small

00:34businesses they're already facing disastrous economic consequences of

00:39President Trump that just across the board tariffs and small manufacturers in

00:44particular are struggling many businesses and manufacture in the US rely on imported

00:49parts and materials and in Nevada like I said 99% of our businesses are small

00:54businesses and because of Trump's tariffs these companies are now calling us

00:59they're worried they're trying to navigate increased costs disruptions in their

01:03supply chain and frankly they're just so worried the uncertainty of it all they

01:08just don't know what to plan or prepare for and how to move forward so Ms. Robbins

01:13I'm going to ask you could you discuss about how the uncertainty not just for

01:19your business but for yourself your family and everything you put into it how

01:23have the administration's tariffs really impacted you and how small

01:27manufacturers are particularly vulnerable thank you so much for your

01:33question small manufacturers are really clinging to life right now yeah my

01:41small team which I could count on one hand has spent countless hours crunching

01:47numbers running models worst-case scenarios searching for new suppliers

01:51attempting to set up accounts with those forecasting expenses calculating and

01:56recalculating price increases only for the situation to change drastically with

02:02no notice it creates such an environment of uncertainty then I don't

02:09understand how someone could invest in an economy without having some level of

02:15certainty you can regain your investment I've invested 1.2 million dollars into

02:20our company to manufacture guitar pedals we do all of our manufacturing here an

02:28actor in Akron Ohio and to manufacture more than we do now would be like asking a

02:34baker to make flour the uncertainty from day to day we have a weekly meeting where we

02:44discuss the tariff impacts and try to determine how to proceed we certainly

02:50need to increase our prices as our costs have just drastically risen however they

02:58don't the the landscape doesn't stay the same from week to week that's right so I

03:03don't I don't know how to proceed it's complete uncertainty and how stressful is

03:08that and how stressful is the people who work with you and believe incredibly

03:12stress in all of what you're doing and of course we have a lot of live music in

03:17Nevada so I'm sure there's some folks who've been buying them from you so so

03:22thank you for sharing that and I'm sorry that you're going through all of that

03:26trauma and hopefully we can get some certainty going forward because

03:30manufacturing our emerging manufacturing industries it's just so important

03:34we're there surging investments you put in over a million dollars small

03:38businesswoman right but in Nevada we have a lot of clean energy it's wind water

03:43solar geothermal it's just our geography and geology and so we are clean energy

03:50technologies they support our small manufacturing businesses it's

03:53beneficial for our local and national economics and I've seen the benefits of

03:58clean energy firsthand we are the only state that has an operating lithium mine

04:04I know everybody likes their phones we need that lithium Nevada has become a

04:08hub for electric vehicle battery manufacturing in recent years and last

04:12year I helped secure a tech hub designation for the lithium loop project led by

04:16the University of Nevada Reno which will create even more economic

04:20opportunity and in northern Nevada businesses are coming batteries recycling

04:25training engineers all of it so mr. Geis I know that Eagle Capital has a

04:31portfolio of companies in the clean energy space can you speak to the importance

04:36of directing investment to emerging industries like clean energy and this

04:40just a spectrum of energy we need it all and ways that small businesses can

04:44benefit from engaging those industries

04:48you know the importance of directing investments to emergency to emerging

05:08industries like clean energy like I said in Nevada we have wind water solar geothermal

05:12battery recycling lithium mining critical mineral mineral mining all of these

05:17things so they're newer industries and we want to move capital to us to

05:21develop that so I just wanted you to talk about yeah no for sure I mean I think our

05:25focus is a small business investment company so you know a hundred percent of the

05:31investments we make are in small businesses in the United States that's the

05:35sole focus of what we do and so I think we see lots of you know wonderful

05:41entrepreneurs that are are and you know emerging industries like you talk about

05:46and really you know we provide that capital to help them grow and be more

05:51competitive on a global landscape and I think it's vitally important to our

05:56country to encourage that entrepreneurial spirit thank you

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