During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) spoke about proposed layoffs at the SBA.
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00:00One of the most anti-small business administrations in our nation's history.
00:08Since day one, Donald Trump and his administration have sown chaos in our country and our economy,
00:16disregarding the impacts of their mayhem on the American people,
00:22including the nearly 35 million small businesses in our country,
00:28small business owners in our country.
00:30From freezing federal funds to enacting tariffs that harm small businesses and consumers,
00:37Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to the American economy and the small businesses that fuel it.
00:44Now the Trump administration has taken to gaslighting business owners and the American people
00:51about the impacts of their recklessness.
00:55Just today, Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler,
00:58a billionaire herself, testified before the Small Business Committee on which I sit.
01:04To call her remarks Orwellian would be an understatement.
01:10In her testimony before the committee, Administrator Loeffler claimed that thanks to the President's economic agenda,
01:17quote, demand for American goods is rising and small manufacturers are stepping up to meet it, end quote.
01:26On the contrary, President Trump's tariffs, for example, are harming U.S. businesses,
01:33especially small business, and increasing their costs.
01:37As a result, business confidence is plummeting.
01:42According to the National Small Business Association, only 59% of small business owners are confident in the financial future of their businesses.
01:54And this is a new low in this organization's surveys, a new low in the 16-year history of this survey.
02:04According to another organization, the Small Business for America's Future,
02:0980% of business owners feel concerned or pessimistic about their economic outlook.
02:1679% of businesses are concerned about a recession in the next two months or 12 months.
02:2486% are concerned about navigating current economic conditions.
02:32Normally, the SBA would be there for small businesses in moments of pain and uncertainty like this.
02:39But this anti-business administration has wasted no time in basically gutting the SBA.
02:48To date, nearly 800 SBA employees have been fired or resigned.
02:56And the administrator has a goal to shed another 1,900 employees in the months ahead.
03:04Now, the SBA is the smallest entity in our federal bureaucracy, and they are shedding all these employees.
03:13And when I asked the administrator about these employees, 800 of whom are gone,
03:19she had a hard time giving me a straight answer.
03:22Already, we've heard from small businesses that have noticed a significant decline in customer service since January,
03:31when SBA began shedding all these employees.
03:36If the SBA goes ahead with this disastrous plan to shed more employees,
03:43nearly half, nearly half of the agency's workforce will have been eliminated,
03:51leaving small businesses across the country basically to fend for themselves,
03:55not to mention all of the programs that SBA supports on behalf of small businesses.
04:05Gutting the SBA is hardly what I would call, to quote Ms. Lauffler in her testimony today,
04:10meeting the moment.
04:13Despite the administrator's bluster, the numbers are clear.
04:19Our small businesses are suffering.
04:22They are not prospering.
04:23They are suffering under the weight of Trump's actions, especially his tariffs.
04:33And that's why I was proud to join Senator Markey in introducing legislation,
04:38which he will talk about soon, to exempt small businesses from Trump's tariffs.
04:44Tariffs that may well force many of these businesses to shut down altogether.
04:50While the massive corporations controlled by President Trump's billionaire buddies may be able to weather this economic storm,
05:03our small businesses don't have the same luxury.
05:07Republicans think our tax code makes our economy great.
05:11That if they keep giving massive tax breaks to their billionaire buddies,
05:18some of these tax breaks, this money that is concentrated at the top will eventually trickle down to working people.
05:28We already know that is not so.
05:31Democrats know that small businesses, entrepreneurs,
05:35and their hardworking employees are the powerhouses of the American economy.
05:41We should be making it easier for hardworking people to start and run businesses, not harder,
05:49so that they can unleash a wave of innovation and prosperity rather than waiting and hoping for a trickle that may never come.
06:01And in fact, it hasn't.
06:03It doesn't.
06:05But the Republicans keep hoping that we're going to continue to buy this argument.
06:10So for these reasons, if Republicans are serious about supporting small businesses,
06:18they will join us in passing our common sense bill.
06:24On behalf of the nearly 35 million small businesses across our country,
06:29I urge my colleagues to join us in passing the marquee bill.
06:35I yield back.