00:00Thank you, Madam Chairwoman and Administrator. Thank you very, very much for bearing through
00:08this, for answering your questions. Congratulations on 104 days. The SBA, in this short period
00:15of time, has launched the red tape hotline. I think I mentioned to you yesterday at the
00:21meeting, I think we should have called it the blue tape hotline. The Made in America
00:26Manufacturing Initiative, the Franchise Directory, and the Make Unsure and Great Again portal
00:31that I want to hear a little bit more about. You've restored prudent underwriting standards
00:35in the 7A loan program. As we all know and predicted, there was $176 million in non-collateralized
00:41loans, which we warned, that our Chairman warned the SBA Administrator right to her while she
00:47was sitting there, that these loans were going to go bad, but they did it anyway, non-collateralized.
00:53Then we crack down on SBA loans going to illegals and those who are ineligible, non-eligible
01:00persons and businesses. Boy, I don't know who finds that to be disturbing, but my goodness,
01:08if we're all from the private sector, or some of us anyway, and are about small businesses,
01:14we really wouldn't want a private bank or a private business to be doing business with
01:19those who have no chance of paying them back or paying the loan.
01:24So there's still a lot of work to do. You have no-shows. 90% over a four-year period,
01:29I believe you said. That is unbelievable. I don't remember hearing much of a cry about
01:36that over the last four years, except maybe from us. And the SBA Administrator said, we're
01:42working on it, when we didn't have to subpoena her to provide us information. Piles of the
01:48blue tape, the overreach, the loans, as stated, going out to non-collateralized. And by the
01:54way, we had a big issue with them doing a lot of focus, spending a lot of time on registering
01:59voters, particularly in blue areas. But outside of that, they were wonderful. So we're very glad
02:07that you're now in your seat. The BBB provides tax certainty, continuation of particularly
02:16small business taxes, particularly to 199A, enhanced to 23%, very, very important, bonus
02:23depreciation, R&D tax credit. Tell us from your vast experience in business, and you're talking
02:30with the small business you work for, what would happen if these provisions expire?
02:36Well, we would face many, many challenges, most of which would be felt on Main Street
02:43America. And certainly, that is the heartbeat of this country's economy. It's the jobs engine.
02:49It would cost us millions and millions of jobs if that 23% deduction doesn't go through,
02:55if factories don't have the depreciation they need to invest and grow in Made in America
03:00manufacturing, which is so vital to our country's economic and national security. And they would,
03:07many of them, we would lose many of our small businesses because they operate at such thin
03:11margins. They would lose the certainty of their future and be unable to invest, not just in
03:18equipment, but in employees and hiring, which are the engines of our hiring, under which President
03:24Trump, we've already seen a half million jobs created, reversing the Biden administration's
03:29decline of manufacturing of 110,000 jobs lost in manufacturing in just his last year. So
03:36we're getting back to supporting the working men and women of America on Main Street.
03:39Thank you. You're insuring great again. I want to talk about that. But I also find it alarming
03:45how so many talk about tariffs and how that's going to make the skyfall, but raising taxes
03:51on companies is A-OK, but not on small businesses because this bill caters to the big businesses.
03:59Does this bill, the BBB, even have any effect on C-corporations, the larger corporations, with
04:06certain exceptions of R&D and bonus depreciation?
04:10No, it maintains the corporate tax rate. It maintains it. Yeah, it certainly helps
04:15small businesses grow and invest. And did I see correctly that the inflation
04:20rate last month was at 2.1 percent, the lowest it's been since, I think, 2019?
04:27Yeah, four-year lows. Yeah, four-year lows. So why don't you tell us a little bit about
04:32your on-shoring great again, which shows businesses where they could go as opposed to buying products
04:38from overseas? Thank you, Congressman. We strongly reject the narrative that things
04:42can't be made in America again and are promoting made-in-America manufacturing. And as part of
04:47that, not just expanding our loan sizes, but making sure small businesses know they have
04:50a choice to procure their resources to onshore production in this country. Our Make On-Shoring
04:58Great Again portal, which is on the SBA.gov website homepage, can be accessed by everyone. It's
05:04three different private-sector databases that provide access to onshore production, and it'll
05:11ensure that our small businesses can source locally and not from the Chinese Communist Party.
05:15Thank you, Administrator, very much. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
05:18Gentlemen.
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