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

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During a House Small Business Committee hearing last week, Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-CA) spoke about President Trump's tariffs.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

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00:00now recognize Mr. Cisneros from California for five minutes. Thank 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 shouldn't

00:26be about partisanship. We all agreed and we should not be politicizing the SBA, and this

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

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

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

00:49seeks to close SBA regional offices in Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta, New York City, and

00:56Denver, and 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, I

01:17feel 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 this

02:06environment of uncertainty for entrepreneurs that are going to have to take on more costs, frankly,

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

02:17you represent a nationwide network of over 30,000 small business owners, many of which depend on the

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

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

02:35based on whoever is 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, the SBA

03:53will uphold the highest standards of accountability, performance, and integrity. Mr. Trent, how can

03:59the SBA have the highest standards if the office tasked to provide oversight is vacant? Did President

04:05Trump's illegal firing of the Inspector General already undermine the administrator's will,

04:11the administrator wanting to uphold the highest standards of accountability and integrity?

04:16It's going to be tough without someone in that office, as that inspector general is not

04:23just the main person investigating a lot of fraud and abuse within the agency, but also a sounding

04:28board for thousands and thousands of entrepreneurs across the country. So with that post-vacant,

04:34that's an ally for small business owners that is not there right now, and frankly it's going to be

04:41scary for our entrepreneurial class. All right, well thank you for your testimony and I yield my time back.

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