Troy Downing Rails Against Biden-Era SBA, Accuses Agency Of Prioritizing 'Politics And Bureaucracy'

3 hours ago

During a House Small Business Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Troy Downing (R-MT) spoke about the Small Business Administration under the Biden Administration.

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00:00The chair now recognizes Mr. Downing from Montana. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank

00:05you to the witnesses. Under the Biden administration, SBA suffered from serious mismanagement that

00:11hindered the agency's ability to support small business. You know, through irresponsible work

00:16from home policies, DEI mandates, and voter registration efforts, Biden's SBA prioritized

00:22politics and bureaucracy over the interests of Main Street America. First, Mr. Gutierrez,

00:29your testimony demonstrates the power of small business centers or SBDCs to assist small

00:35businesses and produce a return on taxpayer investment. So from your experience as the

00:41director of Missouri's SBDC, how do they help support rural businesses which very often lack

00:48access to the information and training needed to thrive? Thank you for the question. So the

00:54Missouri SBDC serves all 114 counties in the city of St. Louis. It's a large footprint across the

01:00state with 18 business service centers and two satellite locations with a staff of 33 full-time

01:08folks. That's simply just not enough. Right. Unfortunately, we are not able to have a

01:13physical presence. However, with the introduction of different technologies such as Zoom, Teams,

01:19things of that nature, we're able to reach more folks. We try to set up regional meetings where

01:25we're meeting with several different counties at once. We set up a revolving schedule to meet with

01:29different cities so we're there on a regular basis. But simply the fact is that we're stretched thin,

01:35just like many of our other partners in the field that are frontline, and we're doing as

01:41best as we can. I mentioned earlier that sometimes because of staffing issues and funding issues,

01:47it could take up to two weeks before they're able to see anybody in person at one of our

01:51rural business centers. We're just trying to do a lot with with a little. Well, thank you.

01:56So how did the SBA's work from home policies under the previous administration negatively

02:02impact your SBDC? Quite honestly, they didn't impact us at all because we were on the ground.

02:08We were meeting with the businesses on a regular basis. We knew that the SBA officers were there.

02:12We helped support them whenever possible. But during the last three or four years,

02:19we often found that traveling to the SBA offices in both Kansas City and St. Louis, unfortunately,

02:27the personnel was not there. I remember showing up for a meeting and nobody was there with a

02:33meeting with our SBA representative. So it's just a matter of, you know, we're doing the best we can

02:40to meet the needs of small business in rural America and, of course, obviously, mainstream

02:43America as well. Thanks. According to a 2024 report from this committee, the Biden administration

02:49attempted to leverage SBDCs to promote voter registration activities. Were you ever approached

02:55by the Biden administration to support their voter registration efforts? Fortunately, in the

03:01state of Missouri, we were not. Do you believe the administration would have approached you if

03:06Missouri were a more competitive state in their presidential politics? I would like to think that

03:10we would not have been approached, but I can't answer that hypothetical. Thank you, sir. Moving

03:15on, Mr. Ortiz, in your testimony, you emphasized the truly egregious nature of SBA's political

03:20activities under the Biden administration. How have these activities damaged SBA's reputation

03:26as a reliable partner for small businesses across our country? Thank you, Congressman, for the

03:32question. Unfortunately, small business owners just don't believe and trust in the SBA anymore.

03:38I think they look to other partners outside of the SBA, and quite frankly, there are a lot of great

03:43partners out there. Golden Snacks, American Express, for example, runs some fantastic small

03:48business programs. Sir, Mr. Gutierrez runs great programs as well. So I think what we need to do

03:54is we need to restore confidence in the SBA. And what steps can SBA take to restore confidence

03:59with small business? Well, I mentioned already in the testimony, I think part of it is we got

04:03to move resources out to the fields, better resources, more effective resources. I think,

04:10you know, certain folks were let go. I would question and make the question is maybe they

04:15were maybe they should have been let go because they weren't exactly the most effective

04:19resources for our small business owners. We need to make sure that we ensure people who have the

04:24experience to be able to make suggestions, for example, on how to create small business plans

04:29for small business owners. We talk a lot about, and the left talked about, the Democrats talked a

04:34lot about establishing small businesses need certainty, for example. Well, if they needed

04:40certainty, I wonder why they didn't vote, for example, in the last budget, you know, the budget

04:46bill. None of them voted for a budget that included the extension of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

04:50And how important do you think that is for Main Street America, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act?

04:54It's hugely important. In 2017, with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, that provided the impetus for the

05:00successful economy that we had was the two biggest parts of the small business

05:04needs were the tax deduction and the immediate expense of being able to extend it.

Troy Downing Rails Against Biden-Era SBA, Accuses Agency Of Prioritizing 'Politics And Bureaucracy'

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