'Main Street's Getting Whiplash': Gil Cisneros Slams Trump's 'On Again, Off Again' Tariffs

2 days ago

During a House Small Business Committee hearing last week, Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-CA) spoke about President Trump's tariffs.

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00:00Now recognize Mr. Cisneros from California for five minutes.

00:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:06The conclusion of the majority's hearing memo included, you know, the SBA's, Mr. Ortiz's

00:13testimony included ending the agency's politicization. Mr. Gutierrez shared that the

00:19SBA should not focus on political agendas. Mr. Trent, you highlighted to us that this

00:25shouldn't be about partisanship. We all agreed and we should not be politicizing the SBA and

00:31this committee has passed multiple bipartisan pieces of legislation unanimously. So far today

00:38we heard the SBA should go to where the people are, put Main Street America first, yet we have

00:44an administrator, an SBA administrator, targeting major cities led by Democratic mayors as she seeks

00:50to close SBA regional offices in Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta, New York City, and Denver.

00:56And it's probably not long before my area of Los Angeles County is on that list as well.

01:02So Mr. Trent, in your view, how does the brazen politicization of SBA to close offices in major

01:09metropolitan areas impact small businesses? Yeah, it impacts them directly. And listen,

01:17I feel for and have thousands of small business owners in rural areas, Minnesota, Wisconsin,

01:26and I hear from them, you know, it's absolutely, it can be tough to access some of these SBA

01:30resources. And you know what, it's okay to talk about maybe moving a couple staff to different

01:36parts of the country to have more direct service for rural entrepreneurs. But the truth is that

01:45you've got hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs concentrated in Atlanta, in Denver, in Boston,

01:51that are going to feel the effects of sort of this move away from these entrepreneurship hubs.

01:59And it's really unfortunate, I'd say. And we can already feel the rumblings and it adds to

02:05this environment of uncertainty for entrepreneurs that are going to have to take on more costs,

02:10frankly, just to meet basic technical assistance needs. Thank you for that answer. Again, Mr.

02:16Trent, you represent a nationwide network of over 30,000 small business owners, many of which

02:22depend on the SBA. In your testimony, you urged the committee to reject policies that inject

02:28instability into the economy. As we have seen with the Trump tariffs, the president is on again,

02:34off again, based on whoever's in his ear at that given moment. Main Street's getting whiplash.

02:41How important is it for small businesses to have stability? It's unbelievably important. So around

02:4950 percent of small businesses across the country are operating with about a month of operating

02:55reserves. So we've got to be making decisions that are reflective of the fact that we respect

03:02these small business owners. We respect where they are, right, with that little operating reserve.

03:06And the uncertainty around the tariffs, the will they, won't they soap opera, it affects budgeting

03:13for entrepreneurs. It affects planning. It affects the way that they're thinking about growing their

03:18teams in the year ahead. And so there are the direct impacts as tariffs start to come into play.

03:24But then there are the knock on effects that we're really not going to be able to know the full

03:29extent of the problem until six months, a year from now. Thank you. According to the SBA's own

03:36website, the Office of the Inspector General provides independent, objective and timely

03:41oversight to improve the integrity, accountability and performance of SBA and its programs for the

03:46benefit of the American people. The SBA administrator on day one said from day one,

03:52the SBA will uphold the highest standards of accountability, performance and integrity.

03:58Mr. Trent, how can the SBA have the highest standards if the office tasked to provide

04:03oversight is vacant? Did President Trump's illegal firing of the inspector general already undermine

04:09the administrator, the administrator wanting to uphold the highest standards of accountability

04:15and integrity? It's going to be tough without someone in that office, as that inspector

04:21general is not just the main person investigating a lot of fraud and abuse within the agency,

04:27but also a sounding board for thousands and thousands of entrepreneurs across the country.

04:32So with that, with that post vacant, that's an ally for small business owners that is not there

04:38right now. And frankly, it's going to be it's going to be scary for our entrepreneurial class.

04:44All right. Well, thank you for your testimony. And I yield my time back.

'Main Street's Getting Whiplash': Gil Cisneros Slams Trump's 'On Again, Off Again' Tariffs

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