Financing America's Manufacturing and Industrial Boom (Senate Small Business Committee hearing, May 14, 2025)
Summary
Transcript of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship hearing Financing America's Manufacturing and Industrial Boom, on May 14, 2025, published as S. Hrg. 119–95. Chair Joni Ernst presided, with Edward J. Markey as Ranking Member. Witnesses were John Mickelson of Midwest Growth Partners, Julie Robbins of Earthquaker Devices, LLC, Brian Riley of Guardian Bikes, and Benjamin Geis of Eagle Private Capital. The print adds statements from Philippe Herndon, Mission Engineering, Inc. and Steve Skillings, and each witness's responses to written questions from Senator Cantwell. The committee met at 2:35 p.m. in the Russell Senate Office Building.
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“Financing America's Manufacturing and Industrial Boom (Senate Small Business Committee hearing, May 14, 2025).”
Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/financing-america-s-manufacturing-and-industrial-boom-senate-small-bus-796ba61b8d/
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S. HRG. 119–95
FINANCING AMERICA’S MANUFACTURING AND
INDUSTRIAL BOOM
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
OF THE
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED NINETEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
MAY 14, 2025
Printed for the use of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
(
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
60–613 WASHINGTON : 2025
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COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
ONE HUNDRED NINETEENTH CONGRESS
JONI ERNST, Iowa, Chair
EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts, Ranking Member
JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
RAND PAUL, Kentucky JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire
TIM SCOTT, South Carolina CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey
TODD YOUNG, Indiana CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware
JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii
TED BUDD, North Carolina JACKY ROSEN, Nevada
JOHN R. CURTIS, Utah JOHN W. HICKENLOOPER, Colorado
JAMES C. JUSTICE, West Virginia ADAM B. SCHIFF, California
JOHN HUSTED, Ohio
MEREDITH WEST, Republican Staff Director
SEAN MOORE, Democratic Staff Director
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CONTENTS
MAY 14, 2025
WITNESSES
Page
Mr. John Mickelson, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Midwest Growth
Partners, West Des Moines, IA ........................................................................... 5
Prepared Statement ......................................................................................... 7
Ms. Julie Robbins, CEO and Owner, Earthquaker Devices, LLC, Akron, OH ... 11
Prepared Statement ......................................................................................... 13
Addendum Material ......................................................................................... 21
Mr. Brian Riley, Founder and CEO, Guardian Bikes, Seymour, IN ................... 43
Prepared Statement ......................................................................................... 45
Mr. Benjamin Geis, Managing Director, Eagle Private Capital, St. Louis,
MO ......................................................................................................................... 49
Prepared Statement ......................................................................................... 51
ADDITIONAL LETTERS/STATEMENTS FOR THE RECORD
Herndon, Philippe
Statement dated May 14, 2025 ....................................................................... 77
Mission Engineering, Inc.
Statement dated May 14, 2025 ....................................................................... 79
Skillings, Steve
Statement dated May 14, 2025 ....................................................................... 82
QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD
Mr. Benjamin Geis
Responses to questions submitted by Senator Cantwell ............................... 84
Mr. John Mickelson
Responses to questions submitted by Senator Cantwell ............................... 85
Mr. Brian Riley
Responses to questions submitted by Senator Cantwell ............................... 87
Ms. Julie Robbins
Responses to questions submitted by Senator Cantwell ............................... 89
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FINANCING AMERICA’S MANUFACTURING
AND INDUSTRIAL BOOM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2025
UNITED STATES SENATE,
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:35 p.m., in Room
428A, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Joni Ernst, chairwoman
of the committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Ernst [presiding], Young, Hawley, Markey,
Cantwell, Shaheen, Rosen, and Hickenlooper.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ERNST
CHAIR. I call the Committee on Small Business and Entrepre-
neurship to order, and I apologize for my tardiness. I am excited
to hold this hearing to discuss opportunities to reignite investment
in small American manufacturers and ensure our industrial future
is built right here at home.
America is and has always been a nation of builders. Men and
women who roll up their sleeves, put in a hard day’s work and take
pride not just in what they make, but what it means for their fami-
lies, their communities, and their country. That entrepreneurial
spirit is in our DNA.
For far too long Washington looked the other way as factories
and farms shut down and the jobs that once sustained many U.S.
families were shipped overseas. Despite the importance of domestic
industrial production to our national security, production of critical
goods was offshored to foreign countries. In doing so, we’ve made
ourselves dependent on an international supply chain offering fast,
mass-produced goods, mostly coming from China.
This came at a cost, not just economic, but strategic. In January
of this year, the U.S. recorded a $29.7 billion trade deficit with
China. We’ve been massively reliant on our chief adversary for the
goods and services we consume. Today, the manufacturing sector
comprises only 10.1 percent of America’s gross domestic product, a
figure trailing most other industrialized nations. We’ve left our-
selves economically beholden to the rest of the world and hollowed
out our industrial core that once employed millions of Americans.
We cannot accept that status quo. I believe in a great American
comeback, one driven by the world’s most talented workforce and
a new era of domestic manufacturing ensuring this nation’s eco-
nomic security. We can make ‘‘Made in America’’ the norm instead
of the exception.
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Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we are already seeing
the early signs of a manufacturing revival and industrial boom in
Iowa and all across the country. No group is more eager to lead
this charge than small manufacturers who make up 98 percent of
all manufacturing firms in the United States. They’re ready to
build, ready to grow, and they want to do it here in the United
States.
But Washington needs to do its part. It’s time Congress acts to
ensure that the federal government does not stand in the way of
small manufacturers. We must empower them by providing them
the tools they need to generate new jobs, to rebuild and fortify
American supply chain stability, and to reduce our reliance on
other countries, including adversaries.
However, breaking ground on new manufacturing facilities or up-
grading existing ones is a major investment. In many cases, these
projects require long-term financing options, which can be particu-
larly difficult for small businesses to access. That is why I was
proud to introduce the Made in America Manufacturing Finance
Act, along with another member of this committee, Senator Coons.
This bipartisan legislation would double the SBA-backed loan limit
from $5 million to $10 million for small manufacturers.
By allowing manufacturers to access greater capital, my legisla-
tion encourages small manufacturers to invest in their operations
and support the training and expansion of our manufacturing
workforce. This is about leveling the playing field for American
manufacturers on the world stage. It is a straightforward, common
sense and bipartisan solution to unlock the potential small manu-
facturers have to secure our national and economic security.
I am also interested in how we can leverage another SBA pro-
gram, the Small Business Investment Company, SBIC, to support
small manufacturers. This program supports the flow of private
capital to small businesses across the country.
I’m grateful that we’re joined today by Mr. Mickelson from Iowa
and Mr. Geis from Missouri who invest in small businesses across
the heartland through the SBIC program. I look forward to hearing
from all our witnesses about how we can best align SBA programs
and private investment to spark America’s next industrial boom.
The independence, prosperity, and security of our next generation
depends on it.
Thanks to our witnesses for being here today, and I look forward
to your testimony. And with that, I now recognize Ranking Member
Markey for his opening statement.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR MARKEY
Senator MARKEY. Thank you, Madam Chair, so much. And we
are here to talk about small business manufacturers, which con-
tribute to our local economies and provide well-paying jobs for
American workers. But we must address the elephant in the room
when it comes to American manufacturing, Trump’s destructive
small business killing tariffs.
The Boston Globe, on Friday, that is five days ago, the headline
is Massachusetts Port Authority. That’s the entry point for New
England. They expect shipping volume in June to decrease by 35
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percent compared to last year. That’s in June. And we do know
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this, you know, when there’s a 35 percent decline in those con-
tainers coming in, that’s the trade. That’s what helps manufactur-
ers.
There are about 40,000 small manufacturers who are hit by tar-
iffs at both ends as importers and as American producers, who are
going to be affected by this and they’re the most vulnerable. Those
aren’t the big companies. Those are the little companies. They just
live month to month. And so that’s a very dangerous development.
We can’t afford to have a one third reduction in New England of
the containers coming in. That is trade.
And the biggest issue for small businesses, whether they are
manufacturers or clothing shops or restaurants or hardware stores,
is the uncertainty caused by Trump’s rollercoaster tariff policy.
Over the past month, the mood on Main Street has soured. Small
business owners planning to hire new employees has fallen to a
four-year loan, as sales decline and the future remains uncertain.
And unlike large corporations, small businesses cannot absorb tar-
iff costs and ride out the storm, even as the vast majority of small
businesses are seeing massive tariff induced cost hikes, this admin-
istration is offering exemptions for billion-dollar corporations.
If you can get a dinner invitation to Mar-a-Lago like the heads
of Apple and Google, you can secure an exemption for your indus-
try. But no small businesses receive support from this Administra-
tion on how to navigate these constant policy changes. And mean-
while, these tariffs are destroying the small manufacturing growth
we saw during the Biden Administration.
In fact, the Biden Small Business Administration made more
than $10 billion in loans to small manufacturing, contributing to
775,000 new manufacturing jobs. President Trump likes to play the
hero, but in his first term, his SBA made $2 billion less in small
manufacturing loans than the Biden Administration, and they lost
200,000 manufacturing jobs. And now in his second term, he is hit-
ting small manufacturers where it hurts. The cost of building a fac-
tory is skyrocketing because of the tariffs. The Trump tariffs are
not a recipe for a manufacturing boom. They’re a recipe for manu-
facturing doom.
My witness today who makes guitar pedals in Akron, Ohio did
not have the opportunity to dine with the President of Mar-a-Lago.
Now she is unsure if her small manufacturing business will survive
the uncertainty and crushing cost increases unleashed when the
President began his trade war on Main Street, turning Main Street
into Pain Street. They’re the ones who are feeling this most ad-
versely.
President Trump has kneecapped small businesses that build
high quality products here in the United States, because of his
naive and misguided vision of how supply chains work. With very
few exceptions, American companies that build here must rely at
least to some extent on components made elsewhere. We can’t have
35 percent fewer containers coming into America, into the Port of
Boston of New England. This includes the 40,000 small manufac-
turers who are being crushed by tariffs at both ends, as importers
buying parts and as exporters facing retaliatory tariffs.
So, I’ve heard from small businesses in Massachusetts, there’s a
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paranoia which has set in and I’ve heard from all across America
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about the impacts of these tariffs. Last week, I spoke with
Brandale Randolph, founder of 1854 cycling company, an electric
bike manufacturer based in Massachusetts. Brandale shared with
me that his company finally recovered from the $45 million, which
they lost during COVID, only to now be forced to decide whether
or not they can weather this new disaster. The message from 1854
and other small businesses across the country is clear; these tariffs
are going to put them out of business.
And that’s why last week I introduced the Small Business Lib-
eration Act, to exempt small businesses from the Trump tariffs,
just exempt them. Small business owners are our neighbors, our
friends, our family. We must provide the necessary relief so that
they can operate and grow and succeed. They’re not Democrat or
Republican businesses. They’re not blue or red small businesses.
This should not be a partisan issue.
The National Chamber of Commerce has said that we should ex-
empt small businesses. I’m with the National Chamber of Com-
merce. They’re speaking for every Chamber of Commerce all across
the country, exempt small businesses from the tariffs. I have intro-
duced the legislation; we should try to find a way to expedite its
passage on the floor of the Senate. I thank you, Madam Chair.
CHAIR. Thank you, Ranking Member Markey. Again, I want to
extend a warm welcome to all of our witnesses for being here
today. And I’ll now introduce the three witnesses who are testifying
today on behalf of the majority. And I am thankful that you all
took time out of your busy schedules to share your expertise on
SBA’s Small Business Investment Company program and attract-
ing investment to manufacturing.
And I am going to start with Mr. John Mickelson, who is an
Iowan, and he is the co-founder and the managing partner for Mid-
west Growth Partners, an Iowa-based private investment partner-
ship founded in 2013. Midwest Growth Partners is a licensed rural
business investment company and small business investment com-
pany.
Mr. Mickelson previously served as a West Des Moines city coun-
cilman—and thank you very much for your service—served on the
board of the State Historical Society of Iowa and currently serves
on the board of the Small Business Investor Alliance and the
Young President’s Organization, Iowa.
He received his JD, his MBA, and his BBA from—what univer-
sity was that? The University of Iowa. So, from a Cyclone to a
Hawkeye, sorry you couldn’t get into Iowa State. So anyway, thank
you John very much. And I will also note he was a letter winner
on the University of Iowa’s football team. So, to that ‘‘Go Hawk-
eyes.’’
Next, Mr. Brian Riley is the founder and CEO of Guardian
Bikes, a children’s bicycle manufacturer based in Seymour, Indi-
ana. He previously was the founder and CEO of SureStop, a com-
pany that developed, patented, and commercialized a proprietary
braking technology for bikes. Mr. Riley holds a bachelor’s degree
from California Polytechnic State University.
Our third witness, Mr. Benjamin Geis, is a managing director of
Eagle Private Capital. He formerly served as Chief Financial Offi-
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cer of the Fund Manager. Prior to January of 2004, Mr. Geis was
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in the assurance and business advisory practice of
PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, where he started his career.
He holds an undergraduate business degree from Rockhurst Uni-
versity and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Pub-
lic Accountants, and the Missouri Society of Certified Public Ac-
countants. And thank you again. And I will go ahead since Senator
Markey stepped out to go vote, I’ll go ahead and introduce you Ms.
Robbins.
It’s Ms. Julie Robbins, and she is the CEO of EarthQuaker De-
vices, a guitar effect pedal manufacturer based in Akron, Ohio. She
was previously a financial planner at First Merit Bank. Ms. Rob-
bins has a bachelor’s degree from Baldwin Wallace University. And
thank you Ms. Robbins for being with us today as well.
And so, with that, we will start the witness testimony and you
will each have five minutes for your testimony and we will start
with Mr. Mickelson. You’re recognized.
STATEMENT OF MR. JOHN MICKELSON, MANAGING PARTNER,
MIDWEST GROWTH PARTNERS, WEST DES MOINES, IOWA
Mr. MICKELSON. Thank you, Chair for the introduction, at least
at least most of it except for the Iowa State part. And thank you
distinguished members of the committee for welcoming us today.
My name’s John Michelson and I’m the co-founder and Managing
Partner of Midwest Growth Partners, a private investment part-
nership located in Des Moines, Iowa. Midwest Growth Partners
was established in 2013 with a thesis that institutional capital
doesn’t flow to many markets where it is needed.
Notably, small businesses in rural areas don’t have a natural
conduit to capital like larger enterprises or businesses in more pop-
ulated areas. But those overlooked markets have great businesses,
who employ more than 23 million individuals in the U.S. and who
need access to capital in order to grow or to facilitate orderly suc-
cession plans as business owners retire. Over 12 percent of jobs in
rural America—2.6 million—are in manufacturing.
Our investors include community banks, members of the farm
credit system, commodity advocacy groups such as the Iowa Corn
Growers and Rural Electric co-ops. They want financial returns for
their investment, but they also value supporting U.S. based small
businesses.
Midwest Growth Partners has invested in 42 such small busi-
nesses via two USDA Licensed Rural Business Investment Com-
pany vehicles or RBICs, and one SBA, licensed Small Business In-
vestment Company vehicle or SBIC. Starting with seven employees
after our first investment in 2014, today, Midwest Growth Partners
companies employ more than 3,000. These jobs all provide living
wages, benefits, much needed off-farm income for families. The av-
erage net job growth at each of our portfolio companies is over 20
percent.
Smaller businesses, particularly those in low income or rural
areas, tend to have more difficulty accessing traditional sources of
capital because they don’t have the balance sheets of big businesses
and are therefore seen as too risky. This is where RBICs and
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SBICs fill the gap with capital.
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Established in 2002, RBICs fill small business capital gap by pro-
viding patient investments for small businesses throughout rural
America. Today there are 22 RBICs in operation with over 1.7 bil-
lion in committed capital. SBICs have been around since 1958.
SBIC funds are private investment vehicles that pool capital from
institutional investors with leverage from the SBA, which is in-
vested into businesses to help them grow. There are 318 SBICs
with over 46 billion in committed capital and SBA leverage. About
20 percent of those dollars are invested in small manufacturers, all
of which are domestic.
I’d like to provide you with a few examples of the impact that
has been made by Midwest Growth Partners Investments, thanks
in part, to the RBIC and SBIC programs.
The first is AgCertain, which is a manufacturer of refined glyc-
erin and specialty edible oils located in Boone, Iowa, a community
of 12,000. When Midwest Growth Partners invested in 2019,
AgCertain employed 22 people. Today they have 42. In addition to
the employment growth, the company has invested more than $32
million in capital improvements in the facility, including refinery
upgrades, installation of a storage tank farm, pipe racking creation
of two rail spurs, a storm water container facility, and a new boiler.
Another example would be Shells By Design. A manufacturer of
tart shells and desserts located in Garner, Iowa, population 1,200.
When Midwest Growth Partners invested in the Shells platform in
2023, they had 40 employees. Today they have 67. In addition to
the job growth the company has spent more than $500,000 in facil-
ity improvements and incorporated automation into their manufac-
turing process.
Success stories like these manufacturing companies in small
town Iowa don’t happen accidentally. Innovative entrepreneurs, a
dedicated workforce and capital formation are critical to continue
to create more of these successes and the need is there. Midwest
Growth Partners routinely reviews more than 800 opportunities a
year and executes approximately five.
Capital formation can only be accelerated by providing a regu-
latory and policy environment which is reliable for parties in the
capital markets. A good example of encouraging this is the bipar-
tisan investing in All of America Acts. In this Congress, the bill
was introduced in the house in March, with a key improvement to
direct more investment in domestic manufacturing.
As mentioned previously, about 20 percent of all SBIC invest-
ments are made in small manufacturers, and if enacted, this legis-
lation can unlock significantly more for our domestic industrial
base.
The investing in All of America ACT would: increase capital for
the SBIC program which is market driven, and a hundred percent
used for American small businesses, would specifically target mar-
kets like where Midwest Growth Partners is investing today, such
as rural and low-income geographies, and finally it would provide
leverage for small manufacturers additional leverage. This is all
done without new spending, new appropriations, new subsidies, or
new mandates.
Thank you, and I would welcome any questions that you have.
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[The prepared statement of Mr. Mickelson follows.]
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CHAIR. Thank you very much. And next, Ms. Julie Robbins,
you’re recognized.
STATEMENT OF MS. JULIE ROBBINS, CEO, EARTHQUAKER
DEVICES, AKRON, OHIO
Ms. ROBBINS. Thank you, Chair Ernst and all the members of
the committee. I appreciate the opportunity to share my experi-
ence. I’m the co-owner and CEO of EarthQuaker devices, a guitar
effect pedal manufacturer located in Akron, Ohio, and a member of
Main Street Alliance.
As someone who has devoted my life to running a small U.S.
manufacturing business, with a background in banking and in edu-
cation and economics, I have many suggestions and recommenda-
tions on this topic. However, without immediate relief from the tar-
iffs and ensuing trade war, U.S. manufacturing companies like
mine will not survive the summer.
I founded EQD with my husband, Jamie Stillman, 20 years ago.
And after all the challenges and struggles we have faced over the
years, I never imagined that the greatest existential threat to our
company would come from our own government. Since the tariffs
and ensuing trade war have gone into effect, our business and in-
dustry overall have suffered dire consequences.
Our costs have increased and our sales have fallen. Overall, year
to date, our sales are down 15 percent. April was down 33 percent.
We operate on a very thin margin to pay our employees living
wages and competitive benefits. If these losses persist or widen be-
yond the next month, we will have no option but to scale back ben-
efits and reduce our workforce.
Our company grew very much by the bootstraps, by starting
small and continuously investing in the business. We have utilized
the services of the SBA via a 7(a) loan. Our local export focused
SBDC at Cleveland State University, for step funded export train-
ing and matching grants and the Ohio TechCred grant to upskill
employees. We also extensively use the services of Magnet, a Cleve-
land based national Manufacturing Extension Partnership pro-
gram, for consulting education and networking.
Today we have 35 employees and we are a 100 percent USA-
based manufacturer, producing over 50,000 pedals per year. How-
ever, the raw materials used for our products are sourced from
abroad because there are no viable domestic manufacturers of the
electronics components we use in our products. While the compo-
nents originate overseas, we mostly purchase them from whole-
salers located in the USA.
To be clear, it would have always been a more affordable option
for us to manufacture overseas and another country such as China.
However, our values are to create and maintain good jobs in our
hometown, so we absorb the extra expense to make this work.
Akron suffered greatly after rubber manufacturers moved their
operations abroad in the seventies and eighties, and growing up in
that environment shaped our mentality on this. No matter what
anyone may claim on our behalf, it is not a cost-effective solution
to source or manufacture our components in the U.S. It is espe-
cially not feasible in the shorter intermediate term due to the un-
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stable market conditions which have caused a cash flow crunch.
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Prior to the new tariffs in 2025, we paid approximately a dollar
40 per panel for blank PCBs from our longtime trusted supplier.
Searching for a domestic alternative, the prices ranged from $20
and 70 cents to $31 and 19 cents per panel. That is not a viable
option and would push our prices up far beyond what the market
will bear, and that is just one of the components that we use. We
have delayed product launches, as well as completely scrap plans
for new releases because of the increased costs and ongoing confu-
sion.
The changes announced on May 12th are a great example of the
continued confusion and uncertainty, exactly what is the new tariff
rate? Is it official? Can I update my planning? Things rarely re-
main the same from week to week. We have consistently been net
exporters. In fact, we were awarded the 2019 exporter of the year
by the SBA during President Trump’s first term.
However, today our exports are down as much as 50 to a hun-
dred percent. Our customers say this is due to anti-American con-
sumer sentiment, and the global financial fallout from the chaotic
rollout of U.S. tariffs. Small manufacturers in my industry are all
at risk of going out of business. We share frustration about the lack
of government support or resources, even as this threat being as
bad, if not worse, than COVID for my company. The SBA and MEP
network are losing funding at a time when they’re needed most.
Prior to implementing the tariffs, no one asked how we would be
impacted or what we would need to succeed. I feel an incredible
sense of frustration as the disparity between large and small busi-
nesses grow wider, and they benefit from exemptions and delays
that do not apply to us.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Robbins follows.]
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43
CHAIR. Thank you, Ms. Robbins. Mr. Riley, you’re recognized for
five minutes.
STATEMENT OF MR. BRIAN RILEY, FOUNDER AND CEO,
GUARDIAN BIKES, SEYMOUR, INDIANA
Mr. RILEY. Chair Ernst and the distinguished members of the
committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My
name is Brian Riley and I’m the co-founder and CEO of Guardian
Bikes, a company I started 15 years ago while I was still in college
with a simple mission: to make bicycles safer for families.
The inspiration to start the company came from a traumatic acci-
dent that my grandfather had on his bicycle. When I was growing
up, my grandpa, Lee Bowman, used to ride his bike around the
neighborhood for exercise. One day, a car cut him off. He panicked
overapplied his front brake, and that sent him flipping over the
front of his handlebars. He landed on his head and broke his neck.
He was found on the side of the road by someone who called 911.
Luckily, he survived, but needless to say, it was a traumatic expe-
rience that my family and I went through.
When I was in college, I kept thinking about what problem I
could help solve. I decided to work on a new type of bicycle braking
system, which could prevent the type of accident that my grand-
father had. After numerous failed prototypes, the SureStop braking
system was born, an important innovation which made this type of
accident a thing of the past.
In those early years, I was convinced that the right business
model for this was to partner with the major bike brands to get the
SureStop Braking system adopted into their new bike models. So,
from the age of 21 to 26, I traveled around the world partnering
with bike companies to get SureStop adopted.
During those years, I got an up-close look at exactly how the bi-
cycle industry worked. I quickly learned that every major bicycle
brand in the United States was partnered with a Chinese OEM fac-
tory to manufacture bikes for U.S. consumption. In fact, the entire
bicycle component supply chain was completely dominated by
China as well. The Chinese OEM would handle the ordering of the
components from brakes to handlebars to hubs, and would then
build a complete bike for each American bike brand.
That meant that no matter what brand we choose to partner
with, our customer that would buy the SureStop brake components
from us, would actually be the Chinese OEM factory that’s building
the bicycle for the brand. That meant I spent a lot of time traveling
to China and seeing all the major factories in China.
It was an interesting start to a career. I learned how the entire
value chain for bicycles worked, from production to retail. And con-
trary to my parents and grandparents’ generation, when bike com-
panies like Schwinn were American manufacturing powerhouses
employing many thousands of people in the Midwest, when I en-
tered the industry in 2010, not a single bike brand sold in the U.S.
was manufactured in the U.S. anymore.
In addition, most of the iconic bicycle brands had not only shored
all their production, but over the years, most had become foreign
owned as well. With unique IP in this industry, and a value chain
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44
being a component supplier. Eventually, I decided to evolve the
company and integrate our SureStop technology into our own bikes,
and build a new type of bike company from the ground up. This
is how Guardian Bikes of today was born.
As we got started, we imported bikes from China like everyone
else. However, when the 301 tariffs started under President
Trump’s first term, and later COVID supply chain disruptions
came, we decided this was the moment to take a big bet and do
what everyone in our industry insisted was impossible. We decided
to start a bicycle factory in the United States.
In 2022, Guardian Bikes officially opened its factory in Seymour,
Indiana. And in just 36 months, we’ve quickly become the first and
only large scale bicycle factory to exist in the United States since
the industry decided to completely offshore production decades ago.
We now employ 250 people in Indiana, making 2,000 safe quality
bikes every single day. We’re doing it profitably. We’re growing
quickly, and we’re demonstrating that reshoring production in the
United States is not as impossible as many might say.
Starting and scaling this business required capital. Early on, a
crucial SBA 7(a) loan helped us get off the ground, but it was only
a starting point. What truly allowed us to execute on the factory
was patient, long-term capital from private equity investors who
believed in our vision.
Senator Ernst’s Made in America Manufacturing Finance Act,
which would double the loan limit for SBA 7(a) and 504 loan pro-
grams to 10 million for small manufacturers, would be instru-
mental in furthering growth of American companies looking to
reshore production. Increasing working capital through this legisla-
tion would empower small manufacturers to start or expand pro-
duction, hire more Americans, and solidify the U.S. as a viable
place to start factories again.
Ultimately, our experience with Guardian Bikes, proves that re-
shoring manufacturing isn’t theoretical, it’s achievable, sustainable,
and it’s necessary. By investing in American made products,
strengthening public-private partnerships, and ensuring our trade
policies prioritize domestic production, we can empower small busi-
nesses like mine to lead America’s manufacturing resurgence.
Thank you for the opportunity to share my story.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Riley follows.]
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49
CHAIR. Thank you, Mr. Riley. And next, Mr. Geis, you’re recog-
nized for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF MR. BENJAMIN GEIS, MANAGING DIRECTOR,
EAGLE PRIVATE CAPITAL, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
Mr. GEIS. Good afternoon, Chair Ernst, and distinguished mem-
bers of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with
you today. My name is Ben Geis and I’m a Managing Director at
Eagle Private Capital based in St. Louis, Missouri, and current
chair of the board at the Small Business Investor Alliance.
I’m proud to be here, not just as representative of my firm and
SBA, but as someone who understands firsthand economic chal-
lenges and the potential of rural and lower income America. I grew
up in a town of just 600 people in Nebraska, and my partners hail
from in and around the St. Louis, Missouri. We’re raised in commu-
nities where entrepreneurship is common, but access to capital is
often limited. That’s why we chose to use our backgrounds in fi-
nance, not on Wall Street, but to invest in America’s small busi-
nesses, particularly in the communities that shaped us.
Eagle Private Capital was founded in 2003 with a mission to pro-
vide growth capital to small businesses through the public private
partnership of the SBA Small Business Investment Company Pro-
gram. Our team brings decades of experience in commercial lend-
ing, investment banking, and accounting. Over the past 20 years,
we’ve invested approximately 1.27 billion in 162 small businesses
through six licensed SBIC funds. Eagle Fund three was awarded
SBIC of the year by the SBA, and an Eagle Fund IV portfolio com-
pany, Paragon Bioservices, was awarded the 2019 SBIC portfolio
Company of the Year by the SBIA.
Eagle is currently investing out of its six SBIC fund, which was
licensed in August of 2024. From this fund, we have invested in
nine portfolio companies and deployed $71 million to date, less
than one year into our investment period. Those numbers represent
more than capital deployed. They represent real growth in real
communities. Across 91 realized investments, our portfolio compa-
nies have added over 6,000 jobs and increased revenues by nearly
3 billion. In Missouri alone, we’ve invested in 16 companies result-
ing in 20 percent job growth, a meaningful impact in places where
every job counts.
Let me share an example, close to home in Jackson, Missouri, a
town about a hundred miles south of St. Louis, we invested in
Rapco, a manufacturer and assembler of data cables and inter-
connect devices. When we first invested in 2008, Rapco had 550
employees. By the time we exited the investment in 2017, the com-
pany had added 105 jobs, becoming an even stronger pillar of its
rural community.
But our impact isn’t limited to the Midwest. We’ve seen similar
results in 37 other states where we have investments. In Massa-
chusetts, for example, Eagle has invested in six businesses across
six funds, growing revenues by almost 80 million or 79 percent,
and employees by 342 or 83 percent.
One standout is Learn Well, which provides in-person and vir-
tual academic services for students undergoing mental health
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50
ary 2018, the company has demonstrated remarkable resilience
and growth. Over the past five years, Learn Well’s performance has
been exceptional. The team has grown from 115 to 233 employees,
which is 103 percent expansion, and serves over 33,000 students
each year.
These stories aren’t one-offs. They’re the result of the SBIC pro-
gram. We review hundreds of opportunities a year. These are often
companies that are too small, too rural, or too unique to get the
attention of traditional lenders. SBICs like ours fill this gap, de-
ploying flexible capital to companies that need it most, while work-
ing alongside the management teams, leveraging their expertise
and our experience in the lower middle market to create a long-
term partnership.
Finally, the investing in All of America Act introduced last Con-
gress, by Senators John Hickenlooper and Roger Marshall, will en-
able SBICs to do more of what it already does well: support small
businesses, create jobs, and strengthen the economic backbone of
America, especially in places that too often get left behind.
Specifically, the bill provides SBICs with bonus leverage to invest
in rural, low-income manufacturing or national security focused
businesses. The legislation would also adjust the leverage caps to
account for inflation that has risen nearly 30 percent since they
were last raised. Adjusting the caps is necessary to ensure the pro-
gram’s investment power remains consistent with the broader mar-
kets and SBICs can continue assisting job creating small busi-
nesses across the country.
I’m proud of the work we’ve done and the communities we’ve
helped grow and encourage this committee to move swiftly on the
legislation so even more can be done.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I look forward to
your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Geis follows.]
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62
Senator YOUNG [presiding]. Well, thank you so much. As is com-
mon here, our former Chairman had to depart and I am acting
chairman, I’ll say that for the benefit of the staff behind me. Since
I just moved into the seat, I’ll ask you, Mr. Geis are you the last
one to deliver your testimony? I’m expecting that is indeed the
case.
Mr. GEIS. I am the last one.
Senator YOUNG. All right, great. Thank you. Now that I have
command of this situation——
[Laughter.]
I’ll thank all of you for appearing. I am of course especially glad
to see Mr. Riley here. He’s invested in the great state of Indiana,
but I am really excited about having all of you here.
As I often share with our panelists, my father was a small busi-
ness person. This is not always known as the committee with the
broadest jurisdiction that touches on every facet of your life, but it’s
really, really important. It’s important to people like him, that we
optimize the programs and support that the small business admin-
istration in particular gives our small businesses and give you a
platform and a voice.
And so, thank you for being here today. Before I dive into my
own questions, I will give Senator Shaheen an opportunity to ask
hers. Senator Shaheen.
Senator SHAHEEN. Well, thank you very much Mr. Acting Chair-
man. And I appreciate that since I have not yet voted. So welcome
to all of our witnesses. Thank you all for being here very much. I
actually grew up in Missouri and my grandfather was from Jack-
son, so I know exactly where you’re talking about Mr. Geis.
One of the programs that I helped create when I got to Congress
and that I continued to think is very important, and in fact I
worked with Chair Ernst on it last year as the State Trade Expan-
sion Program, the STEP program, which you mentioned, Ms. Rob-
bins. It helps small businesses sell internationally.
And when we think about the fact that about 95 percent of our
markets are outside of the United States, it’s really important for
us to help small businesses get into those markets because right
now, fewer than 5 percent of small and medium sized businesses
do business overseas.
You mentioned in your testimony that you currently manufacture
in the U.S. to sell internationally, but that now you’re having to
consider moving production overseas just to export. Can you talk
a little bit more about the impact that the tariffs have had on actu-
ally pushing your production offshore and what that means for
your company long term?
You talked a little bit about the potential to need to downsize to
address that, but in addition to that, what would the loss of the
STEP program and the technical assistance and grants that that
provide mean to your business?
Ms. ROBBINS. Thank you very much for your question. The STEP
program, the way Ohio disperses the funds is through the SBDC
and an IMAGE grant. The IMAGE grant reimburses us for, well,
partially reimburses us for activities related to exporting. It also
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63
So currently we’re participating in a program called the Global
Target Program, with a focus on Latin America. It prepared us for
a trip to Brazil last month, and set us up for success in that mar-
ket. I’m incredibly grateful to the staff at the local SBDC, very
knowledgeable, they bring in experts and connect us to others.
But as you mentioned, unfortunately I need to consider
offshoring my manufacturing, and that’s because as I mentioned,
our sales are down and sustained losses put us at risk of bank-
ruptcy by the end of the year. We have perfect credit and we’ve
never missed a payment, but we’re rapidly running out of liquidity.
In addition, the tariffs make our products exceedingly expensive.
My competitors overseas do not have that problem. And so, in order
to compete, I feel that we may need to diversify and manufacture
overseas to serve export markets.
Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you. And again, if you could speak a
little bit, one of the things that we have learned from the ‘‘skinny
budget’’ that the Administration has sent as on appropriations, is
that it would eliminate the STEP program entirely. What would
that mean in terms of future, assuming that tariffs are addressed
in ways that allow you to build back some of those markets, what
would that mean for you if you no longer have access to that tech-
nical assistance and the funds that are available through the STEP
program?
Ms. ROBBINS. It would have a really devastating impact, espe-
cially for businesses that don’t have the education experience that
we have. You know, we’ve learned a lot by benefit of this program
and access to those experts. A new startup or another small busi-
ness just starting to get into exports, they would lose such a valu-
able resource.
Just an example of what a global target session may be like. It
would be you know, maybe 12 other business owners looking to in-
crease their exports and they would bring in an expert or two, to
speak about a variety of topics relevant to exporting, marketing,
legal compliance, financing your exports, taking payments. Things
like that helps to demystify the complexity and also creates a
greater network of experts to reach out to.
So, you know, while I would be hurt, I think that it would be
much harder for businesses that don’t have the same experience
that we have to get a leg up. Thank you.
Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator YOUNG. Well, thank you, Senator Shaheen. I will pick up
with Mr. Riley giving him the Hoosier privilege, a Hoosier by
choice by way of Sacramento, and his company, Guardian Bikes lo-
cated in Seymour, Indiana I think is a prime example of how a
small business can grow into a successful and thriving American
company and even help reshore an industry. Doesn’t happen in
every case but we should celebrate it, and the jobs you create and
the opportunities associated with all of that when it does.
So, your insights Mr. Riley, into how the policies that we put in
place here in Washington, DC, which can be detached and removed
from the daily cadences and concerns of regular people sometimes,
they would be invaluable to our whole process and so I appreciate
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all of your comments this morning.
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Whether it’s developing skilled workers through apprenticeships
or connecting startups to research institutions and capital, public-
private partnerships are already proving what’s possible when sec-
tors work together. Too many small businesses, especially in rural
communities, lack access to the same networks or infrastructure or
talent pipelines that they need to compete and grow.
Mr. Riley, how have public-private partnerships, if at all, helped
support or scale your small business operations? And you can ex-
pand on that if you would like. In your experience, what do you see
as the most effective roles for the government and the private sec-
tor in making these partnerships work?
Mr. RILEY. Thank you, Senator Young. And I’m proud to be a
new Hoosier of a couple years. So, in Guardian Bike’s case, when
we were first starting, we did utilize an SBA 7(a) loan and that
was instrumental in getting the company off the ground, getting
some working capital in.
But in our case, when we really started looking into starting a
factory, it was clear that we needed several million dollars to get
this thing started, both because of some of the equipment that we
needed, but also because we were starting something that no bike
company had done in the United States in many decades. And we
knew that there’d be at least say, 12 to 18 months of time where
we have to kind of go into money losing mode to learn how to run
a factory to get the thing up and running.
And so, we relied, you know, on an SBA 7(a) loan, but also some
private equity, not private equity, but I should say individuals in-
vesting some money in for equity in the business.
That was instrumental, but it was also challenging. That was me
going around, you know, pitching a lot of different individuals, get-
ting them to believe in the vision, taking 50 to a hundred thousand
dollars checks, you know, left and right to try to pile together a few
million dollars, in order for us to really kind of execute on this vi-
sion of starting a factory in the USA.
So, I think to the extent that, you know, what we’ve done is chal-
lenging and in a lot of industries it is challenging to actually
reshore production and reshore supply chain, and it does take cap-
ital. So, I think to the extent that the government can make flows
of capital easier for companies that are looking to reshore produc-
tion and build production in the United States. That’s helpful.
Senator YOUNG. So, I’m just going to stop there, and though
we’re both from Indiana, we didn’t choreograph this because that’s
a great lead in to Mr. Mickelson. And my questions for you, sir, you
mention in your testimony the importance of programs like the
Rural Business Investment Company, RBIC and the Small Busi-
ness Investment Company, SBIC, to help create jobs and drive eco-
nomic growth in the Midwest, which I especially care about.
So how can we use our federal investment tools more effectively,
in your informed estimation, to expand access to capital for rural
entrepreneurs and ensure that small businesses in underserved
areas can grow and compete.
Mr. MICKELSON. Thank you, Senator, for the question. I’ll stay
on the theme here, and stick with Indiana. We actually had an in-
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vestment in Franklin, Indiana, which you might be familiar with.
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It’s not a large metropolitan area. But there were two great entre-
preneurs there that——
Senator YOUNG. I live like a few miles away.
Mr. MICKELSON. Okay. So perfect. [Laughter.]
Senator YOUNG. We really didn’t choreograph this, but thank
you. Sometimes it happens.
Mr. MICKELSON. So, two great entrepreneurs there. They were
young, they were obviously risk takers. They started a business,
but they had not had the resources to scale the business to profes-
sionalize the business.
So, when we invested with them, we brought in systems, we
brought in people. They originally had one location. By the time we
exited the investment, they had 13 locations. They had a full C-
suite of teams. And so that would not have been, you know, pos-
sible without programs like the RBIC and SBIC. And so, two ways
that you could help that, I mentioned the investing in All of Amer-
ica Acts, passing that would help create more opportunities for sit-
uations like this.
And then on the RBIC side, the RBIC program does not have le-
verage like the SBIC program has. And so that’s one thing that
we’ve been working with the USDA with for a long time to try to
get that put into place.
Senator YOUNG. Thanks so much. Unless there are any other In-
diana stories. Senator Rosen, you’re recognized.
Senator ROSEN. We’ll talk a little bit about some Nevada stories,
maybe, how’s that? Because in Nevada, we love our entrepreneurs,
our dreamers or small business owners. And for those of you who
don’t know, we’re really famous for those big casinos. I know that,
but that only makes up 1 percent of the businesses in Nevada. 99
percent are small businesses. And so, it is really the heartbeat of
Nevada.
And I want to build a little bit upon what Senator Shaheen
talked to you about on the tariffs, because the tariff impact on Ne-
vada small businesses, they’re already facing disastrous economic
consequences of President Trump—that just across the board tar-
iffs, and small manufacturers in particular are struggling.
Many businesses and manufacturer in the U.S. rely on imported
parts and materials. And in Nevada, like I said, 99 percent of our
businesses are small businesses. And because of Trump’s tariffs,
these companies are now calling us. They’re worried, they’re trying
to navigate increased cost disruptions in their supply chain and
frankly, they’re just so worried the uncertainty of it all. They just
don’t know what to plan or prepare for and how to move forward.
So, Ms. Robbins, I’m going to ask you, could you discuss about
how the uncertainty, not just for your business, but for yourself,
your family, and everything you put into it, how have the adminis-
tration’s tariffs really impacted you and how small manufacturers
are particularly vulnerable?
Ms. ROBBINS. Thank you so much for your question. Small manu-
facturers are really clinging to life right now. My small team,
which I could count on one hand, has spent countless hours crunch-
ing numbers, running models, worst case scenarios, searching for
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new suppliers, attempting to set up accounts with those, fore-
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casting expenses, calculating, and recalculating price increases only
for the situation to change drastically with no notice.
It creates such an environment of uncertainty that I don’t under-
stand how someone could invest in an economy without having
some level of certainty you can regain your investment. I’ve in-
vested $1.2 million into our company to manufacture guitar pedals.
We do all of our manufacturing here in Akron, Ohio. And to manu-
facture more than we do now would be like asking a baker to make
flour.
The uncertainty from day to day, we have a weekly meeting
where we discuss the tariff impacts and try to determine how to
proceed. We certainly need to increase our prices as our costs have
just drastically risen. However, the landscape doesn’t stay the same
from week to week. I don’t know how to proceed. It’s complete un-
certainty.
Senator ROSEN. And how stressful is that? And how stressful is
for the people who work with you and believe in all of what you’re
doing——
Ms. ROBBINS. Incredibly stressful.
Senator ROSEN. And of course, we have a lot of live music in so
I’m sure there’s some folks who’ve been buying them from you. So,
thank you for sharing that. And I’m sorry that you’re going
through all of that trauma and hopefully we can get some certainty
going forward.
Because our emerging manufacturing industries, it’s just so im-
portant, they’re surging investments. You’ve put in over a million
dollars small businesswomen. Right. But in Nevada, we have a lot
of clean energy. It’s wind, water, solar, geothermal, it’s just our ge-
ography and geology. And so, our clean energy technologies, they
support our small manufacturing businesses. It’s beneficial for our
local and national economics.
And I’ve seen the benefits of clean energy firsthand. We are the
only state that has an operating lithium mine. I know everybody
likes their phones. We need that Lithium. Nevada’s become a hub
for electric vehicle battery manufacturing in recent years. And last
year I helped secure a tech hub designation for the lithium loop
project, led by the University of Nevada Reno, which will create
even more economic opportunity in northern Nevada. Businesses
are coming, batteries, recycling, training, engineers, all of it.
So, Mr. Geis, I know that Eagle Capital has a portfolio of compa-
nies in the clean energy space. Can you speak to the importance
of directing investment to emerging industries like clean energy,
and this just the spectrum of energy. We need it all and ways that
small businesses can benefit from engaging those industries?
Mr. GEIS. Sorry, thank you for the question, Ms. Rosen. So, help
me, could you repeat the last part of your question again just to
make sure I address it appropriately?
Senator ROSEN. Well, you know, the importance of directing in-
vestments to emerging industries like clean energy. Like I said, in
Nevada, we have wind, water, solar, geothermal, battery recycling,
lithium mining, critical mineral mining, all of these things. So,
they’re newer industries and we want to move capital to us to de-
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velop that. So, I just wanted you to talk about that a little bit.
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Mr. GEIS. Yes, for sure. I mean, I think our focus as a small busi-
ness investment company—a hundred percent of the investments
we make are in small businesses in the United States, that’s a sole
focus of what we do. And so, I think we see lots of wonderful entre-
preneurs that are in emerging industries like you talked about.
And really you know, we provide that capital to help them grow
and be more competitive on a global landscape. And I think it’s vi-
tally important to our country to encourage that entrepreneurial
spirit.
Senator ROSEN. Thank you. I yield back.
CHAIR [presiding]. Thank you, Senator Rosen. Senator Hawley.
Senator HAWLEY. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Thanks
to all of our witnesses for being here. Mr. Geis, I want to start with
you because I understand that you are a Missourian and you are
a St. Louis Guy. Is that right?
Mr. GEIS. That is correct.
Senator HAWLEY. Although I think you went to college on the
other side of the state or my nick of the woods. Rockhurst Univer-
sity?
Mr. GEIS. Yes.
Senator HAWLEY. Okay. Very good. Now, were you born and
raised in St. Louis?
Mr. GEIS. I was not.
Senator HAWLEY. Okay. He’s helping me all the time. [Laughter.]
I could hear you. That’s fine. Keep going, you’re on a roll.
Mr. GEIS. No, I was not born in St. Louis. I was born in Ne-
braska, but I’m not an atypical St. Louis story. I married a St.
Louis girl, so I’ve been there for 26 years.
Senator HAWLEY. Oh, there you go. All right. Well, that’s good.
Hey, we’ll claim you. That’s great. You’re a Missourian in my book.
Mr. GEIS. Yes.
Senator HAWLEY. Right. Let me ask you, in your written testi-
mony, you included the helpful chart explaining how the SBIC pro-
gram helped spur investment in small business. And I wonder if
you could just tell us, just give us an overview, tell us about the
SBIC program, what it is, and why it matters so much to Missouri.
Just give us your perspective on that.
Mr. GEIS. Yes. So, you know, I think I’d come at it from a couple
of different angles. So first of all, you know, it’s a stable, long-
standing program. It’s been around since 1958. It’s operated at a
zero subsidy from the taxpayer since its inception. But I think
what’s critical about what SBICs do in Missouri and lots of other
states, is we provide that critical next stage of capital to really cre-
ate the growth to drive to the next level.
So, you know, oftentimes entrepreneurs’ capital invest their own
money to start their businesses, but when they hit sort of a critical
inflection point, they need that next round of capital to really invig-
orate growth and that’s what SBICs do.
Senator HAWLEY. Yes. Very good. In fact, if I’ve got my statistics
correct, and in FY 24 alone, SBICs invested in Missouri $192 mil-
lion in more than 20 small businesses across the state. That capital
supported over 3000 jobs in the state of Missouri. That’s pretty
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good. We want every single one of those jobs.
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Mr. GEIS. And I think, you know, SBICs fill a gap, right? There
are, you know, everybody knows about the capital markets and the
large lenders and larger private equity funds that ultimately invest
those large dollars of capital that we hear about. But SBICs are
squarely in the heartland of America and small businesses, that’s
what we do day in and day out.
Senator HAWLEY. Very good. Let me ask you to talk about the
role that small businesses can play in the manufacturing sector
and how SBIC can be used to help spur industrial growth. I mean,
can you talk about that? Because this is a big need and the back-
drop here that I probably don’t have to explain to anybody on the
panel or anybody watching this hearing is that, you know, in
America as a whole, we have lost 4 million jobs.
It is particularly in industrial sector to China since 2001 in Mis-
souri, it’s close to 60,000 jobs. We need more industry; we need
more manufacturing of all kinds. Tell us about the SBIC compo-
nent here for that.
Mr. GEIS. I mean, it’s a big focus of what we do. If I look at the
Eagle Funds, 25 to 35 percent of our investments are in manufac-
turing companies. And the stories that we could share within our
portfolio are not too dissimilar from my other panelists here, but,
you know, we provide the capital to help build the new plant, to
really spur and change growth. So that is what the SBIC program
does.
Senator HAWLEY. Very critical. Thank you. Thank you for the
work you do. Thank you for willing to be here, and thank you for
testifying. And with that, I yield back to you, Madam Chair.
CHAIR. Great. Thank you. Senator Hawley. And I’ll go to Mr.
Mickelson. We’ll start with you, and Mr. Mickelson. Oh, I’m sorry.
Senator Hickenlooper.
Senator HICKENLOOPER. I must look like a wallpaper or some-
thing.
CHAIR. I missed you. I got caught up there with Senator Rosen
and totally overlooked you. My apologies to you. Senator
Hickenlooper, you’re recognized for five minutes.
Senator HICKENLOOPER. Let me start. Mr. Mickelson, the SBIC
we’ve been talking about, obviously as a cornerstone of so much
what the SBA does. As a small business person myself, I’d gotten
laid off, was out of work for a couple years and took a long time
to raise the money, as I always would say, my mother wouldn’t in-
vest and she wouldn’t.
I think those private investments with coupled coming through
the SBIC, can really bring—well, it certainly brought hundreds of
millions of dollars into Colorado. And I’ve been working with Sen-
ator Marshall to further build on that success. I’m sure you’re
aware of the All the America Act. So, in terms of your firm oper-
ating the SBIC, how would expanding that program broaden access
for capital to what are popularly called underserved to lower in-
come communities?
Mr. MICKELSON. Thank you, Senator, for your question. It is
timely. We actually closed an investment in Colorado last week,
from an SBIC, so your timing’s perfect. But you know, certainly the
passage of the investing in All of America Act, which I know you
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gress, will increase funding to the SBIC program so there will be
more opportunities for investment, like the one we did last week
and Colorado.
It’ll also specifically target rural and low-income areas. And so,
Midwest growth Partners invest in rural areas. So that would give
groups like us more opportunities to make those investments. And
then finally, it would provide bonus leverage for manufacturers.
And so, we’ve talked a lot about the importance of manufacturing.
Right now, 20 percent of dollars from SBIC roughly go into manu-
facturers. And so, with some bonus leverage, we would expect that
number to go higher because there’d be more capital available. And
so great.
Senator HICKENLOOPER. It’s okay. You covered it well. I spent a
lot of time in West Des Moines, and when as an entrepreneur I
branched out, one of our brew pubs that we opened was in down-
town Des Moines, but it was the Raccoon River Brewing Company
and the old hotel Fort Des Moines.
Mr. MICKELSON. It’s a great spot.
Senator HICKENLOOPER. I probably know a number of your per-
sonal investors. I got them to help invest in that.
Mr. MICKELSON. Yes. Perfect.
Ms. Robbins, let me ask you a question. The tariff situation, obvi-
ously as somebody—I can remember every little bit, when you’re a
truly small business, every little bit makes a difference. And I
think tariffs went up, then they’ve been suspended, now it’s three
months, that uncertainty is chaos. I know how hard that is.
How have you guys navigated the uncertainty around the tariff
issue and how to make your planning of when you make infrastruc-
ture investments and how do you assess that? How are you able
to grow?
Ms. ROBBINS. Thank you so much for your question, Senator.
We’re not able to grow under the tariffs. The tariffs have created
complete uncertainty. They’re changing from week to week. You
mentioned that they announced a reduced tariff rate and a 90 day
pause. But I’m still not clear on exactly how much I’m paying in
tariffs. Is it 30 percent plus the 2018 plus the fentanyl? That would
put me at 75 percent. That’s still huge. Yes, we do count every
penny.
And I used to be a financial planner, and as a business, we’re
planning a year out easily. And now I don’t know what’s happening
next week and three months. And it’s impossible to navigate these
circumstances. So, you know, we had forecast a price increase,
things had been the same for two weeks. We were going to roll it
out and now the tariffs have changed. So, we’re going to hold onto
that.
I also know that my customers have been loading in on foreign
imports. My customers are retail stores. They’ve been loading in on
foreign imports during this reduced tariff pause because they’re
speculating that it’s going to go back up. So just another way, this
is backfiring and hurting U.S small businesses. Thank You.
Senator HICKENLOOPER. Good. Thank you. And I love the name
EarthQuaker. I was an old geologist and the Colorado School of
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Mines has an earthquake center, and you can get a live feed to see
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70
anywhere in the world when a quake happens. And you ought to
stick one of those in your retail sales or your wholesale sales office.
Mr. Riley and again, a safer bike. I was a huge bike fan, a huge
believer in outdoor recreation. It’s a business. It creates jobs, but
it also makes people healthy. It makes people feel healthy, I mean,
it changes their mental health issues. You had a unique journey
somehow. Mark Cuban never took the time to let me have—on his
TV show. I’m not sure what he was doing back when I was trying
to raise money.
What other suggestions would you give small business owners
who are trying to find capital to invest in domestic manufacturing?
Mr. RILEY. Sure. Thank you, Senator. Yeah, I was very lucky to
have the opportunity to go on the show Shark Tank and I got an
investment from Mark Cuban, but I think the statistics were some-
thing like 80,000 people every year apply to go on the show and
something like 50 or 60 actually get on a season. So, I still pinch
myself that that actually happened for me.
But I would say, you know, for just general advice for small busi-
nesses, I think what we’ve done is try to create a U.S. factory
reshore production, but really make that a strategic advantage for
us. And not have it really be all about a tariff advantage, but actu-
ally an inventory advantage. A way that we can, you know, set up
the bikes in a really safe way.
The whole brand is built around safe bikes. So, a bike is only as
safe as it’s set up. You set up the brakes, you set up every fastener
to a certain torque. So really kind of telling it—for somebody like
us telling that story to investors and getting investors excited
about the strategic advantages of building a product in the United
States that are over and above just tariffs or whether it’s going to
be a price advantage in these things.
That was a really big thing for us and we were able to secure
capital, you know, not only from Mark Cuban on the show, but
from a group of just individual investors——
Senator HICKENLOOPER. Ripple effect. That’s perfect advice. I
mean, that you’re exactly right. They got to take the advantage you
have and then use that to go out and compete. I’m out of time but
anyway, I yield back to the Chair.
CHAIR. Do you have another question? Senator Hickenlooper.
Okay. [Laughter.]
No, thank you. Senator Hickenlooper. Okay. I will go ahead and
recognize myself now for five minutes, and we’ll start with you, Mr.
Mickelson. Your investments highlight the next-generation tech-
nologies that are coming out of our farms, that are creating new
jobs across America and helping our nation remain competitive
globally. From your experience investing in dozens of small busi-
nesses in Iowa and across the heartland, what are their greatest
barriers to growth and building here in the United States?
Mr. MICKELSON. Thank you, Senator. So certainly, access to cap-
ital as we’ve talked about today. So, when, when you look at a busi-
ness that’s scaling, they’re trying to add new people, more talented
people, more educated people, and that comes at a cost. You think
about technology investments and things like ERP systems, com-
puter systems efficiency in your manufacturing process, trying to
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automate as much as you can. All of that costs money, and that’s
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a big part of just the professionalization process that you try to do
in each one of our investments.
And so, each investment that we look at, they’re successful,
they’ve done a great job, but we’re trying to take them to the next
level and help them grow. And so that takes expertise and that’s
largely human capital driven, and it takes capital to build out prop-
erty, plant and equipment and invest in that technology.
CHAIR. Thank you. And Mr. Riley as well. Again, just reiterating
what Senator Hickenlooper said, you’ve been recognized nationally
for your efforts to reshore production of bicycles and industry that
had been dominated by China for decades. And thank you for doing
that. I commend you for all that Guardian Bikes is doing to build
higher quality bikes for children, and something that is possible be-
cause of your ability to source from domestic suppliers.
So, you’ve been able to raise a significant amount of private cap-
ital to support your vision. Based on your experience, what added
value and benefits do investors seem to find with Made in America
products?
Mr. RILEY. That’s a great question. The way that we really went
about it was to say, look, the world is changing around us. Supply
chains aren’t as secure as we thought they were. COVID was a per-
fect example of that. So, to start with, building product onshore
just gives you a lot more supply chain resiliency.
Over and above that, it really kind of can change a business, so
when you’re purely relying on imports, the lead times are long. You
got to ship them all the way here. And so you have to deal with
a lot more inventory. You have to plan your business just right to
figure out what are we going to sell? What do we need to buy?
Sometimes many months ahead of time.
When you’re onshore and you can produce in your own factory,
you can take that demand signal. For example, when the Barbie
movie came out, we started selling a lot more pink bikes. I don’t
know how we could have predicted that,
CHAIR. Right?
Mr. RILEY. But when you sell a lot more pink bikes and you’re
able to just, you know, paint more bikes pink the next day, you can
just start making more pink bikes and react to that kind of de-
mand signal. So that’s a perfect example of—there’s all kinds of
real advantages that come from onshoring manufacturing that I
think so many businesses that have relied on imports for a long
time, they don’t necessarily think that way because they’re not in
the weeds of manufacturing.
But we found that there really are true business advantages over
and above, you know, any cost advantage or anything like that.
And just running the business, being able to react to demand,
being able to have a resilient supply chain and deliver safe quality
products to lots and lots of consumers. And we find that those con-
sumers, you know, reward us for making that decision and they
want to do business with a company like us that’s trying to do it
here.
CHAIR. Yes. Thank you very much. And Mr. Geis, thanks for
sharing your experience, both as an SBIC investor and as a leader
in the SBIC industry. As you stated in your written testimony, 20
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nies. How can Congress further target the SBIC program to invest-
ments that are critical to our nation’s economic and national secu-
rity while maintaining a zero-subsidy program?
Mr. GEIS. Thank you for the question. I would say by supporting
the SBIC Critical Technology Initiative. So that, for those who
don’t know, it’s a partnership between the Small Business Admin-
istration and the Department of Defense to license SBICs that will
invest at least 60 percent of their investments in small businesses
in sectors that are deemed critical to our national security.
CHAIR. Okay. Fantastic. And with that I will recognize Senator
Cantwell for questions.
Senator CANTWELL. Thank you, Madam Chair. So good to see our
witnesses. Ms. Robbins, thank you for being here, specifically, we
love music and the Pacific Northwest, and we like to get our
grunge on and do many other things. But, you know, we had a
music stand company in Yakima Washington that continued to be
a big exporter.
And I kept thinking, I’m so proud of you guys. How do you—
they’re big supporters of the XM Bank, you know, and I kept say-
ing, how are you so successful? I would think somebody would
knock this off. And they were like, no, no. You’re a symphony. You
need performance out of a music stand. You can’t have a big con-
cert with lots of people coming and have a bad music stand.
So, you are a similar company that makes electronic parts and
turns those into something that musicians can create with. So how
are you thinking about this tariff situation and what do we need
to do to help more businesses like you grow?
Ms. ROBBINS. Thank you so much for your question, Senator. I
was really fortunate that a lot of the investing that I did in our
business happened before the tariffs were increased. So, in 2022,
we invested in a state-of-the-art PCB assembly line. And under the
current tariffs that would be maybe triple in price. The tariffs have
really made it more challenging for us to recoup our existing in-
vestment in our business and are putting us at risk of bankruptcy,
if these conditions continue.
We have perfect credit and we’ve never missed a payment, but
like I said, we’re running out of liquidity, and our home is collat-
eral on our loans. So, if we miss payments and we default, we will
lose everything that we work for, including our home, just as our
two daughters are in college.
And I don’t see taking on additional debt as the answer. I also
don’t know why somebody would invest in a company that is cur-
rently losing money without a clear path to success. I also find the
suggestion that I borrow money and pay interest to finance taxes
and fees, abruptly imposed on me by the government with no no-
tice and no consideration, I find that suggestion offensive. And I
believe the tariffs seem to be reversed immediately or at the very
least, small businesses need to be exempted.
Senator CANTWELL. Well, small businesses definitely have a lot
less flexibility. Do you have a big export market for your devices?
Ms. ROBBINS. We do. We’ve worked very hard to increase our ex-
ports. They’re approximately 30 to 40 percent of our sales, although
just in the last few months, we have seen that number drop dras-
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tically due to anti-American sentiment and the chaos that the glob-
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73
al financial markets have experienced due to this chaotic trade pol-
icy.
Senator CANTWELL. You know, I find it takes a lot to become an
exporter. We have in the northwest—we had programs in the
eighties where we just encouraged everybody to do it. I don’t know
if it was our geography or just an ethos, but we encouraged people
to do it. And it’s hard because you’re taking risk, you’re taking a
risk anyway as a business person, but you’re taking more risk be-
cause now you have less control over.
That’s why we support the export import bank so much because
it lessens that risk. But we find that ends up being 25, 30 and
you’re saying, in your case, 40 percent of sales opportunities. It
makes sense. You have a whole global market to pursue. What are
some of your best markets for exports?
Ms. ROBBINS. Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan, anywhere that
guitar music is popular, guitar-based music, and where incomes are
high enough to afford some discretionary spending.
Senator CANTWELL. Okay. So friendly countries to us anyway, we
should have good relationships with them. And this shouldn’t really
be the barrier that it is at this moment.
Ms. ROBBINS. That’s right. But we’ve offended a lot of our allies.
Senator CANTWELL. Thank you so much. Thank you, Madam
Chair, Ranking member.
CHAIR. Thank you. Next, I recognize Ranking Member Markey
for his questions.
Senator MARKEY. Thank you, Madam Chair. Trump’s tariffs,
they’ve been thoughtless, they’ve been reckless, unpredictable,
overly broad. They’ve caused economic uncertainty, as I already
said, a 35 percent reduction in the number of huge containers com-
ing into Mass-port, the port of New England really, for the month
of June. Just absolutely unbelievable. And it has a profound impact
on small businesses and consumers all across the country. And it
places small businesses at a competitive disadvantage. They’re not
able to weather the storm the way bigger companies are.
Ms. Robbins, you are already a 100 percent U.S. manufacturer,
but as you state in your testimony, it’s entirely impractical for you
to be able to manufacture all the raw materials and components
that go into your final product in the United States, especially with
the current tariffs. Can you describe why this would be near impos-
sible at this time?
Ms. ROBBINS. Thank you for your question, Senator. Yes, I’d be
happy to. First of all, any type of investment like this would re-
quire months or years and a lot of money. And I don’t have that
time and I don’t have that money right now, especially as I’m being
taxed heavily. I can also share some data with you.
One of my friendly competitors did an analysis on what it would
take to reshore just one of the components that goes into a pedal.
So, this one that I have here behind these knobs is what’s called
a potentiometer. And they are used to adjust parameters on a
pedal such as tone level, distortion, et cetera. So, his annual vol-
ume on this part, he uses 130,000. So, it’s one of his most fre-
quently used parts. And his current——
Senator MARKEY. Cost 130,000 what?
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Ms. ROBBINS. Potentiometers.
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74
Senator MARKEY. Okay. Beautiful.
Ms. ROBBINS. And his current cost is 22 cents, and his annual
cost is $28,600. The analysis showed that the cost per part would
be $3 and 75 cents for an annual cost of $487,500, over 17 times
the cost.
Senator MARKEY. For you?
Ms. ROBBINS. For a company that was attempting to reshore a
single part. So, the tooling would be $238,000, that’s eight times
the annual cost, and that’s just one part of hundreds that go into
an effect pedal. So, he actually listed here the nine different parts
that go into making this. And I’d like to submit this for the record,
and I’d like to thank John Cusack for providing me with this evi-
dence today. Thank you.
CHAIR. Without objection. We’ll have that entered into the record.
Senator MARKEY. So, as you mentioned in your testimony, you
were named SBA Exporter of the year in 2019. So, no one does it
better than you. You were the number one. And so now tariffs were
imposed. So, describe that in terms of the daily headaches that
you’re now confronting.
Ms. ROBBINS. It’s basically, all we do now is try to navigate this
environment. I’ll tell you what I’m not doing. I’m not putting out
new products, I’m not growing, I’m not thriving, I’m not hiring. I’ve
actually canceled job openings. These are all things that I’m not
doing. What I am doing is worrying, stressing, things changing
from day to day.
You know, thinking over my employees and how they’re depend-
ent on our healthcare to manage their chronic conditions or chronic
conditions of loved ones. Thinking of my daughters and how they’re
relying on myself and my husband for our income, to complete
their education. This is what I’m doing. I’m not doing things that
are productive.
Senator MARKEY. Right. So, President Trump’s motto of short-
term pain for long term gain. So, you are sitting there, your short-
term pain, but that short term pain could turn into long-term pain
for you. It could be an extinction event.
Ms. ROBBINS. Absolutely.
Senator MARKEY. It could be an obliteration event, not a libera-
tion day, but an obliteration day, if this goes on for too long. So,
do you really feel that he’s picking winners and losers here? Apple
gets a pass; other big companies get a pass and you are down there
trying to figure it out all by yourself?
Ms. ROBBINS. I do. I do think that the disparity between large
and small businesses has grown wider. I’m here publicly stating
how poorly my business is doing while those companies are meet-
ing royalty in the Middle East. It’s a huge disparity.
Senator MARKEY. Do you have lawyers and lobbyists here in
town helping your company?
Ms. ROBBINS. No.
Senator MARKEY. Does Apple? Yes, they have departments. Does
Google? Yes. All these big companies. They do. You have no one
here except for this committee actually, we’re supposed to be your
advocates to protect you. So, you just think there’s a dispropor-
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Ms. ROBBINS. That’s correct. I do have some advocates. The Main
Street Alliance is working hard to level the playing field and ele-
vate the voices of small businesses. And I really appreciate their
support, but it still does not compare to what the large companies
have.
Senator MARKEY. So, do you keep a bottle of Pepto-Bismol now
nearby as each day stories, you know, give you something else to
think about and worry about?
Ms. ROBBINS. As a small business owner, I’m used to navigating
challenges. I have excellent problem solving and stress manage-
ment skills, as you must to be in this position. However, I just
don’t see solutions. They’re just not immediately available and I
need immediate solutions. So, in my opinion, the only option is to
rescind the tariffs, to pass the bill that you’ve mentioned exempting
small businesses, it’s just not survivable.
As you mentioned, I believe we’re facing the mass extinction of
small businesses. We are clinging to dear life. The reason you’re
not seeing bigger numbers of the fallout in the economy, is because
of folks like me that are—our house is on the line. We’re going to
do everything we can to save our businesses, to keep our employees
employed. We’re not also not like big companies that we’re going
to slash jobs the moment the forecast change.
Senator MARKEY. Just one final question. I appreciate your in-
dulgence, Madam Chair. When the President announces that he’s
in the process of beginning to try to find an agreement with China,
does that just lift the cloud over off your head and all of a sudden,
you’re feeling instant relief? And what does that mean to you when
you hear that? That they’re trying to get a deal but they don’t have
a deal and then there’s still 179 countries left to go to get a deal
with?
Ms. ROBBINS. There’s absolutely no relief. It just creates more
confusion and uncertainty, and it actually creates some effects such
as, retail stores loading in on products from China in order to get
things in before the tariffs theoretically go up even higher. That’s
what happened over the last month while there’s been a break on
the other reciprocal tariffs. So, it absolutely doesn’t help us. It just
extends the period of uncertainty.
And I really need to be making changes now. And I can’t due to
this uncertainty. In the U.S. where we sell to retailers, and it is
our largest market, if you make a price increase, you really can’t
go backwards. You know? And the more that you increase your
price, the less competitive, the less affordable that you’ll be to end
users. And you really can’t predict how much further your demand
will fall when you raise prices. And it’s certainly not something
that you want to do repeatedly.
So having something that I could plan for, you know, we ab-
sorbed the 2018 tariffs. They were 25 percent, that was difficult,
but we did it. What’s going on now is absolutely so challenging. I
don’t know a way forward.
Senator MARKEY. So, thank you Madam Chair.
Ms. ROBBINS. Thank you.
CHAIR. Thank you, Ranking Member Markey. And I’ll just make
my own editorial comments as well. We recognize it is really dif-
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ficult Ms. Robbins, and I appreciate your testimony, very detailed.
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76
It is a very complicated situation. We did not get into this situation
overnight and we have had tariffs from other countries for decades
now.
And if we go back and look at those tariffs, we have forgotten as
a nation that those same countries that we are tariffing now have
had tariffs against us. And it’s just baked into the prices of the
goods that we consume every single day. This is a painful time. We
recognize that we have got to find a way forward and we hope that
these countries come back to the table and work with the United
States of America.
For those that are able to manufacturing all of their product in
the United States, kudos. We love that. We want to support you.
We want to have more made in America jobs for Americans. We’ve
got to figure a way forward.
So, I really appreciate all of you coming here today to give your
testimony. This is a very important committee especially for states
like all of ours, where most of our businesses are small businesses.
So, we want to find a way forward that will work for all of us and
make sure that we are manufacturing here in the United States.
So, I do want to ask unanimous consent that the witnesses full
statements be included in the record and without objection, so or-
dered. So, we’ll make sure that all of your full written testimonies
are included today. And with that I do have a closing statement.
I ask unanimous consent that the record of today’s hearing re-
main open for two weeks for members to submit questions, revise
and extend their remarks, and submit additional information into
the record. Without objection, so ordered.
And again, thanks to our witnesses for being here today. Really
great testimony. Thank you so much. And with that, the Com-
mittee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 3:58 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
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File and source
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