During a House Small Business Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) spoke about mass layoffs at the Small Business Administration under the Trump Administration.
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
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
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00I now recognize Ms. McIver from New Jersey for five minutes.
00:05Thank you, Chairman and Ranking Member, for having this hearing, and thank you to our
00:10witnesses for joining us today.
00:12This hearing could not come at a better time, considering the rapid changes occurring at
00:17the Small Business Administration.
00:19SBA's work has helped turn the dreams of countless everyday entrepreneurs into reality and has
00:27helped thousands climb up the socioeconomic ladder in America.
00:31My home district, the 10th district in the great state of New Jersey, is proud to host
00:37the SBA New Jersey Regional Office, providing important services all over the Garden State.
00:43For years, SBA employees have worked hard for the American people, and we owe it to
00:48them to ensure that they are treated fairly while performing their work for our communities.
00:54As mentioned in this committee hearing today, we've heard over and over again about the
00:58reckless firings of hundreds of employees at SBA, including the probationary employees,
01:05which is why I introduced the Merit Act to ensure that these employees are granted back
01:10their jobs immediately and the back pay.
01:13I've heard from many of you today about the strains on the department, which obviously
01:19trickle down to the businesses and the support that they're able to get.
01:23For each of the witnesses today, I would like to ask, do you support the firing of
01:28these hundreds of employees?
01:32We can start with Mr. Gutierrez.
01:41Under the current direction of the administration, I would say yes.
01:48It's funny because in your opening statement, you said that they were short-staffed.
01:54The SBA is already short-staffed, but you support the firing of these hundreds of employees
01:58that were just recently fired.
02:00I would say that the majority of the firings, from what I understand and what I've read,
02:05are out of the D.C. area, as opposed to what's going on in the field.
02:09I know that the field has been really underrepresented, and I believe that when you have any type
02:15of transition like this that could lead to potentially more stability down the line,
02:21that's something that, from a private standpoint, that goes to efficiency.
02:25So, yes, I understand that there's been lots of jobs lost, but to my point earlier, those
02:32jobs were never out in the field, and they were never really affecting a lot of the regions
02:36that they were in.
02:37Do you know that for sure?
02:38Well, I can speak directly to the Missouri and the Kansas City district offices.
02:44Not for every office?
02:47Well, of course not.
02:48I can't speak for across the nation.
02:49Okay.
02:51Mr. Ortiz?
02:52I worked at a consulting agency called Boston Consulting Group.
02:55This is something that we used to do day in and day out, is trying to make sure that we
02:58have an organization that is more effective and efficient for, in this particular case,
03:04it's not an organization, but it's an agency that works for the Federal Government, who
03:07actually is taxpayer-funded.
03:11We have a responsibility to our small business owners to make sure that we have the most
03:15effective and efficient, not only agency, but people working for it.
03:19I was a small business owner, and I will tell you that I bet everything I had on my small
03:24business, and I want to make sure that every small business owner that goes to the SBA
03:29knows that they have the most effective and efficient people working in that agency.
03:32It's a yes or no, Mr. Ortiz.
03:34Well, that's my answer, ma'am.
03:35So it's a yes or no.
03:37Do you support the firings of those people?
03:38I support a more effective and efficient agency.
03:40Okay.
03:41Next, Mr. Trent.
03:42No.
03:44Yeah.
03:45I mean, I come at this work as a veteran family, and so when I think of SBA, I think of veteran
03:54entrepreneurs.
03:55My grandfather served in World War II.
03:57My brothers, both in the Army, one was deployed to Iraq.
04:01You've got thousands and thousands of veteran entrepreneurs who started businesses.
04:05That growth rate in veteran-owned businesses doubled in the first two years of the Biden
04:10administration.
04:11Now you've got those same veterans who served our country, defending the freedoms that a
04:15lot of us take for granted, who have had the rug pulled out from under them as a result
04:19of these mass firings.
04:20It's shameful.
04:22Thank you so much for that.
04:23I want to thank the witnesses, even those who kind of skated around the question, but
04:28the point of the matter is, is we have to make it make sense.
04:31We cannot sit up here and say that we need a more efficient, we need to have more help
04:37at SBA.
04:39We hear from different businesses all the time about the delay in assistance that they
04:42can get from SBA sometimes, so sitting up here saying that we support the firings or
04:48we don't support or there's not enough staffing, it's just not all making sense.
04:52We should be supporting our small businesses and making sure we're delivering to them as
04:55much assistance that we can do.
04:57That is our job here, not to be making things harder for them.
05:02With that, I yield back.