During a House Small Business Committee hearing, Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) questioned Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler about President Trump's trade policies.
00:00So much for being here today and I really appreciated spending time with you in Texas and all of the small businesses that you visited while you were down there. I think they loved seeing you. It was great that so early in your term that you have gotten all around the country. I applaud you for that because I know it's not easy for you and your family. I love the focus though. I like the responsiveness.
00:18You were just asked questions about this one big beautiful bill. Can you tell me a little bit how this one big beautiful bill helps small businesses and why it was shocking to see every single Democrat, including those on the small business committee vote against it?
00:33Absolutely. Thank you, Congresswoman. I appreciated the opportunity to be with you in your great district and visit manufacturers that are really making a difference in America.
00:43I look forward to continuing to meet with more small businesses across the committee's constituencies.
00:49The big beautiful bill act is vitally important to Main Street America. It's pro-growth, it's pro-small business, and it's pro-worker.
00:59We have never had a bill like this in our country that ensures that small businesses can thrive with a 23% pass-through deduction, immediate expensing.
01:08It ensures that we start to cut spending $1.6 trillion in mandatory spending that drove inflation that small businesses were crushed by under the last administration.
01:20It secures the border. Small businesses have been suffering from crime in their communities, needless crime that went unenforced.
01:27So this is really a dream bill. And for small businesses, it prevents a nightmare happening that every Democratic member of this committee voted for to raise taxes on small businesses, trillions of dollars.
01:40By 23%, small businesses could not make it through a 22% tax increase.
01:46And so I'm really grateful for the support of this bill and look forward to, you know, continued reductions in spending and taxes.
01:56So I've been working with small businesses for about 20 years now and I have never heard them say we want to have more regulations, right?
02:02We need the government to get out of our way.
02:04Over the last four years under the Biden administration, we have seen $1.8 trillion in additional new regulations.
02:10The only thing that I've heard from my Democrat colleagues is talking about tariffs.
02:14Now, you have talked to small businesses across this country. I know you have.
02:18Tell me how tariffs are actually helping the small business community.
02:23Absolutely. When we've gone across the country, literally from New York to California to Utah to Tennessee to Texas to New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
02:32small businesses are investing and growing, but they say they have three big challenges.
02:38Regulation is always one of those three. Workforce is always one of those three and the threat of rising taxes.
02:45And so small businesses are grateful that they now can have the commitment of fair trade,
02:52something that they could have never dreamed of under the Biden administration who is pushing more and more trade imbalance.
02:59We had a $1.2 trillion trade imbalance in this country in one year that had grown by 20%.
03:06That meant small businesses were being robbed of opportunity while countries around the world erected barriers against our small businesses.
03:14I visited one logistics operator in New Jersey that said that he used to have 50-50 import-export.
03:21It had gone to 90% import, 10% export, shutting small businesses out of markets around this world.
03:28Small businesses can now compete on a level playing field thanks to President Trump's fair trade agenda.
03:33Thank you very much. Yesterday the Rules Committee favorably reported my American Entrepreneurs First Act,
03:38which would codify President Trump's executive order and your new rule, by the way,
03:43that all SBA loan applicants have their age and citizenship status verified.
03:48Last night in Rules I was told by a number of my Democrat colleagues that we have absolutely no experience with this at all.
03:54We don't have any evidence that there has been any kind of use of illegal immigrants receiving SBA funds.
04:01What have you found?
04:02Congresswoman, thank you for the question.
04:05It's really important that everyone in this committee hear this.
04:07The DOGE team did help us identify $630 million of fraudulent loans that were granted to individuals over the age of 120 or under the age of 11.
04:17That's why absolutely it's critical that we have age verification.
04:22We also found SBA loans to non-citizens.
04:26We were able to cancel those.
04:27They were approved under the Biden administration.
04:29That's why we need citizenship verification.
04:32We also heard some questions about your new rule that you want to be able to move SBA offices out of areas that are sanctuary cities.
04:42Can you say anything about that and the importance of it?
04:45Well, it's vitally important.
04:46We just saw yesterday in Boston one of the sanctuary cities that will be leaving 1,400 illegals, gangbangers, traffickers, sex offenders were arrested.
04:59We cannot support cities that don't support federal law, and I'm grateful to ICE and Secretary Noem for advancing these efforts.
