The new head of the federal Small Business Administration touted President Donald Trump's plans to boost American manufacturing Wednesday during a visit to Peoria.
Kelly Loeffler said one of her top priorities as SBA administrator is to remove $100 billion in regulations she said are restricting American industry.
“First of all, we're making sure that everyone knows that small business is big business, and most manufacturers in America are small businesses — 99% of them,” Loeffler said after joining Illinois U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Dunlap, on a tour of Rheo Engineering’s facility on North Allen Road.
“We're providing access to capital for our manufacturers. We're also working hard to roll back $100 billion in excess regulation that has crippled our manufacturing in America, that disproportionately impacts manufacturers. Then thirdly, we're focusing on workforce development.”
Loeffler’s appearance in Peoria is part of a tour to promote the SBA’s “Made In America” initiative aimed at increasing manufacturing jobs and helping small businesses thrive. She claimed an “endless number” of governmental regulations increased by $1.7 trillion during the Biden Administration.
“Many of them relate to manufacturing, whether it's environmental or just red tape and paperwork, and we have to make sure that we're addressing that, and we have an ambitious goal,” she said.
A Central Illinois native and Olympia High School graduate, Loeffler, a Republican, was appointed to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate in 2019, but lost a run-off election to retain the seat two years later. The former co-owner of Atlanta’s WNBA franchise and ex-CEO of a financial service subsidiary was confirmed as SBA administrator last month.
LaHood echoed Loeffler’s sentiment in support of Trump’s push to grow the U.S. manufacturing industry.
“As the administrator articulated, small businesses are the backbone of our country. They're the biggest employers in our country,” said LaHood, highlighting Rheo Engineering’s material handling related to pharmaceutical, food and beverage, and specialty chemical industries.
“Some of the challenges that they're facing from a regulatory standpoint, from a tax standpoint, from a workforce standpoint, [are] very, very important.”
Rheo CEO Robert Herrmann said the SBA has been very instrumental in opening “life sciences” supply chains, and he’s eager to see the agency’s workforce development efforts continue.
“There's challenges with building out some of the talent and the need, the leadership, all of those issues around all of the requirements to do business in America,” said Herrmann. “As a small business, you can't always afford those investments, so the Small Business Administration seems to have a good eye on that need.”
Loeffler downplayed any thought of international tariffs raising operational costs for domestic manufacturers, saying Trump’s actions will elevate the position of U.S. businesses against overseas competition.
“President Trump's trade policies are already working. They're bringing manufacturing back with over $2 trillion investment in his first six weeks. We've had a turnaround in jobs; 10,000 manufacturing jobs added in Trump's first full month in office,” said Loeffler.
“What's so exciting about President Trump's policies is he's exactly focused on the right things to spur manufacturing in this country.”
