Ranking Member Markey Highlights Crushing Costs for Main Street Manufacturers at Small Business Committee Hearing

Summary

This May 14, 2025 release says Ranking Member Markey spoke about cost increases for small manufacturers at a Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee hearing titled Financing America's Manufacturing and Industrial Boom. It says the witness Julie Robbins, CEO of EarthQuaker Devices in Akron, Ohio, described how small manufacturers are unable to operate, expand or reinvest in their businesses. The release says Ranking Member Markey, Senator Schumer and Senator Hirono recently introduced the Small Business Liberation Act, which would exempt the more than 34 million small businesses from the Trump tariffs. It also describes letters to Administrator Loeffler about the impact of tariff policies on small businesses.

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Title: Ranking Member Markey Highlights Crushing Costs for Main Street Manufacturers at Small Business Committee Hearing
Date: 2025-05-14

Ranking Member Markey Highlights Crushing Costs for Main Street Manufacturers at Small Business Committee Hearing

May 14, 2025

Ranking Member Markey: “The Trump Tariffs are not a recipe for a manufacturing boom. They are a recipe for manufacturing doom.”

(Washington, May 14) - Ranking Member Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) today highlighted how the cruel cost increases and uncertainty caused by the Trump administration’s trade war spells doomsday for small manufacturers at a Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee Hearing titled, “Financing America’s Manufacturing and Industrial Boom.” Ranking Member Markey heard from his witness, Ms. Julie Robbins, CEO of EarthQuaker Devices in Akron, Ohio, about how small manufacturers are unable to operate, expand, or reinvest in their businesses in the wake of Trump’s reckless and unpredictable trade war.

Ranking Member Markey, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) recently introduced the Small Business Liberation Act, legislation that would exempt the more than 34 million U.S. small businesses from the reckless Trump Tariffs that are wreaking havoc on their businesses and the U.S. economy.

“President Trump has knee-capped small businesses that build high quality products here in the United States, because of his naïve and misguided vision of how supply chains work,” said Ranking Member Markey. “U.S. manufacturers are being crushed by tariffs on both ends: as importers buying parts and as exporters facing retaliatory tariffs. The message from Main Street is clear: The Trump Tariffs are not a recipe for a manufacturing boom. They are a recipe for manufacturing doom.”

“If the objective of this committee is to increase investment in the USA, then they must consider how to repair the trust lost by those who have already invested heavily in the USA, and now run the risk of losing their investment,” said Ms. Julie Robbins, CEO of EarthQuaker Devices and Main Street Alliance member. “The idea that the government can abruptly change the playing field with no apparent concern for the impact the changes have, taking massive amounts of money from small businesses by way of taxes and fees does not feel American to me. These tariffs need to be reversed by the administration immediately to prevent the mass extinction of American small businesses.”

Previously, Ranking Member Markey recently wrote to Small Business Administrator Loeffler, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, calling on the Trump administration to exempt U.S. small businesses from the reckless Trump Tariffs and afford them the same relief that the administration is giving billion-dollar tech giants such as Apple and Google.

Ranking Member Markey, along with Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and all Democrats on the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, also wrote to Administrator Loeffler, urging her to take immediate action to address the impacts of Trump’s reckless tariff policies on small businesses.

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