During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) spoke about the effect of President Trump's tariffs on small businesses.
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00:00Vice Chair Murray. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman for your accommodation. I'm
00:03running between several approves committees this afternoon so I
00:07appreciate the opportunity to ask Administrator Loeffler a few questions.
00:11Now first of all I've been hearing from small businesses in my state about the
00:15SBA grants that have been cancelled and frozen. One example is you cancelled a
00:21two and a half million regional innovation cluster contract in
00:25Washington State that would have supported small businesses that were
00:29working on carbon capture and utilization and storage. It's not an isolated case
00:33but that is a program that Congress historically funded with strong
00:38bipartisan support. I wanted to ask you today why have you cancelled funding for
00:42a program that has bipartisan support and really drives small business growth in
00:48our emerging sectors. Vice Chair thank you for the question. Our regional innovation
00:54clusters are certainly mechanisms to deliver support technical assistance to
01:00small businesses in various regions based on expertise in that region and the needs
01:06of that region. I have broad authority in this administration to reshape the
01:13regional innovation clusters and we are undertaking a review of those programs to
01:18right-size them and form them to where the needs are most urgent. Right now we've just
01:25announced that we have a regional innovation cluster centered around
01:28manufacturing because of the skills and efforts and the focus needed on that right
01:34now but we intend to continue to pursue these programs based on the regional needs
01:39and we'll be working. I would just say this is a regional need and I would just ask you to go back
01:44and look at that one. Happy to provide you information but it really is a critical one
01:48for our region. I'd be happy to work with your office. Okay and I wanted to say I met with some
01:53small business owners in Seattle a few weeks ago. One of them runs a coffee shop and imports green tea
01:59tea and like a lot of small business owners that I'm talking to and you know they operate on very thin margins so the current
02:06tariffs are hitting them really hard. We don't grow green tea in the United States. I doubt we ever will and given that the
02:15increased cost imposed by those tariffs could really, he told me, shutter his business. What should they do in this situation?
02:23So this period of negotiation you know is not one where we don't acknowledge their near-term effects
02:31but for the long term we want to have a situation. This is a small business they can't last much longer. Well what we're focused on is ensuring that we never get in the position again of having unfair trade and that's what President Trump's fighting for that's what we're fighting for. We just yesterday put out our make onshoring great again directory to ensure
02:51that small businesses have access to millions, a million suppliers across this country that can offer alternatives to them. But this country doesn't produce green tea and this small business is not going to last more than a few months. I hear your bigger scheme is that someday this will all pay off. This small business won't be there.
03:09I'm just asking you, what are they supposed to do? Are you going to, do you have anything drafted? Are you looking at anything that can help these small businesses who are on the verge of closing right now and they can't wait two, three, five, six months from now?
03:25Well what the SBA is offering is certainly the capital, the counseling that they need as well as import and export loan financing to deal with these times of uncertainty. But the uncertainty is going to be short lived.
03:37President Trump already has 75 countries at the negotiating table. We've already cut deals with China and the UK and there's more to come. And small businesses are benefiting because inflation is down, because we're having 10 trillion dollars of investment that we've never had in this country. We have economic opportunity on the horizon that is really unprecedented.
03:57I appreciate that you have an optimistic view. I'm just telling you, having sat down and met with these small businesses, whether it's shutting the regional SBA office or canceling these grants to support our entrepreneurs or these tariffs that are having impact, there are small businesses that will not make it based on your optimism.
04:16And there are small businesses that are going to be struggling if we don't pass this tax bill too. So small businesses unfortunately bear a lot of headwinds of uncertainty right now, specifically with regard to the tax bill that will affect 100% of all small businesses.
04:31I'm not here to talk about the tax bill. I'm talking about our little shop owners that aren't going to make it.
04:35But I appreciate your response. Thank you.