“250 Years of American Legacy: Small Businesses and the American Dream.”
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House Small Business U.S. House of Representatives
Follow its sittings
Johnny Olszewski
But today, we know our union is also under attack. Corporate greed is causing our markets to consolidate, making it harder for scrappy new startups to enter and remain in business. Simply put, the deck is stacked against the little guy. As everything becomes less affordable due to tariffs and the war, small companies are struggling to pay their bills and their staff. These are our constituents and they are being left behind.
ICE is swarming our cities, provoking fear in workers, small business owners and our neighbors. That does not make us safer, it makes us less strong. To that end, Mr. Chairman, I request unanimous consent to insert the statement of the American Business Immigration Coalition and Small Business Majority into the record. But there is good news. Our Main Street businesses are resilient and they show up for our communities in the face of hardships.
That's the American way. That's the spirit of our nation. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and their issues aren't Democratic, they're not Republican, they are American issues. It's why I'm proud to have worked with Chairman Williams and members across the aisle in this committee to pass common sense legislation to improve small business assistance across the federal government. But we cannot celebrate Main Street one day and look the other way when this administration's policies make lives harder.
So I look forward to a robust discussion about what has truly driven the success of Main Street in our nation and what hasn't, the impacts of tariffs, healthcare costs and the massive unnecessary disruption to our immigrant communities. So as we commemorate America's 250th anniversary, let's honor the generations of entrepreneurs, immigrants, and the motivated hard workers who helped build this nation.
Let's choose action over inaction and bipartisan solutions over gridlock. I yield back.
Roger Williams
The gentleman yields back. We'll now move to the witness introductions. Our first witness today is Mr. Adrian Adornetta. Mr. Adornetta is the owner of Adornetta's and Giacomo's in Zanesville, Ohio. Is that right?
These family-owned businesses have been serving customers in Ohio for more than 65 years. Mr. Adornetta's family's American story began when his grandparents immigrated from Sicily, Italy and helped build the foundation for Adornetta's Pizzeria, which his father Jimmy opened in 1958. Jimmy later founded Giacomo's Bakery in 1994, fulfilling his passion for small for artisan bread. Both family businesses continue to serve fresh scratch-made Italian food and baked goods. Mr. Adornetta purchased the family business in 2012, continuing its tradition of quality Italian food and community service.
Today he is investing in the next generation by teaching his 11-year-old son, who's here, the family business with the hope that he will one day become its third-generation owner. Thank you for being here today, very much. Our next witness is Mr. Philip Freeman. Mr. Freeman is the founder and CEO of Murphy's Naturals, a North Carolina-based manufacturer of natural outdoor products, and the Loading Dock, an innovative co-warehousing space for entrepreneurs. Mr. Freeman spent 23 years in packaging sales before founding Murphy's Naturals in his garage in 2013, when what began as a as a search for an effective natural mosquito repellent has grown into a nationally recognized brand.
And as the business has expanded, he founded the Loading Dock, a co-working and warehouse community that has helped hundreds of small business launch and grow by providing affordable flexible workplace. Those mosquitoes, do you have you got an office in Texas?
Roger Williams
Okay. Mr. Freeman is part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Council, where he advocates for policies to strengthen America's small businesses. He earned a communications degree from Virginia Tech and served eight years as deep sea diving officer in the U.S. Navy. Thank you for your service, and I look forward to our discussion here. Our next witness today is Ms. Anne Shybunko-Moore.
Ms. Shybunko-Moore is the CEO and owner of GSE Dynamics, a U.S. defense manufacturer founded by her father, Daniel, in 1971. GSE Dynamics serves the defense industrial base by supplying in the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Army, and major aerospace manufacturers. She is joined by her father's company in 2001 and has led to its expansion into one of the nation's largest federally certified women-owned small business. She also serves on the Manufacturing in America Advisory Committee, where she provides strategic guidance to the federal government on strengthening supply chains, improving global competitiveness, and supporting America's small business manufacturers. Ms. Shybunko-Moore and her husband Jamie have four sons who may one day carry on the family business as its next generation of leaders.
I look forward to your testimony. I now recognize the ranking member from Maryland, Mr. Olszewski, to briefly introduce our last witness appearing before us today.
Johnny Olszewski
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Happy to welcome Ms. Veronica Cool, who is the president and CEO of Cool and Associates LLC, a bilingual outreach and strategy firm specializing in marketing and engagement for the Latino community. Before her time as an entrepreneur, Ms. Cool was a banker with Wells Fargo and Bank of America respectively. Previously, Ms. Cool also sat on the Open Society Institute board and the Maryland Governor's Workforce Investment Board and has served as the chairperson of the Maryland Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Prior to coming to Congress as Baltimore County Executive, I had the privilege to partner with Ms. Cool's firm to provide my constituents with translation services for our town halls.
Thank you so much for being an outstanding partner in our language interpretation work and for helping to level the playing field for our immigrant entrepreneur communities, both then and now. Ms. Cool holds a bachelor's degree in finance and international business from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree in finance from Loyola University Maryland. Welcome, Ms. Cool.
Roger Williams
There's a Cool, Texas in my district. Yeah, if you run for office there, you'll have instant name ID. Before recognizing the witnesses, I would like to remind them that their oral testimonies are restricted to five minutes in length. If you see the light turn red in front of you, it means your five minutes have concluded and you should wrap up your testimony. If you continue to go further, you'll hear this.
And that means you need to stop. But we'll be fine on time. I now recognize Mr. Adornetto for his five-minute opening remarks.
Adrian Adornetta
Chairman Williams, Ranking Member Dr. Oshefsky, and distinguished members of the committee, good morning and thank you for inviting me to testify today. It is a privilege to appear before you and share my family's story and what entrepreneurship has meant to generations of Americans like mine. I am grateful to have my wife Erica here with me, along with our two of our four children, Enzo and Giada. The other two, Gabriella and Jace, are back home in Ohio. They are the reason this work matters because everything my family has built has always been about creating opportunity for the next generation.
My name is Adrian Adornetto. I'm a husband, a father, a proud American by birth, a Sicilian by heritage, an entrepreneur by calling, and a product of the American dream. My grandparents, Philip and Catherine Adornetto, came to this country from Sicily with hope, determination, faith, and an unwavering belief in the opportunity and a lot of courage, I might add. My grandmother was only nine years old. My grandfather was a teenager when they left everything they knew in search of a better life in America.
They actually later met in America and married and settled in a small town called Zanesville, Ohio, where they raised three sons. One became a doctor of optometry, one built a career in financial management and leadership, and then my father James, Jim Adornetto, chose entrepreneurship. With the encouragement and sacrifice of his parents and his two brothers, my father opened Adornetto's Pizzeria in 1958 when he was just 19 years old. He later opened Giacomo's Bread and More in 1994. I grew up in those restaurants.
Just the other day I realized my first boardroom was not in the corporate office, it was every Sunday morning after church around the breakfast table where my grandmother, father, aunts, uncles, and relatives talked about the previous week's business, what worked well, what didn't work well, how do we improve it, what's on tap for next week. Growing up I dreamed of becoming an actor and my family never pressured me into the restaurant business. But over time the restaurant business found me and I fell in love with the energy, the teamwork, the busy nights, and the chance to create memorable experiences for guests. In 2013, my father and I completed the transition of the family business. I purchased the operating business while he retained the real estate.
We wanted it to be a transition specifically. We were father and son first, business partner second. Those lessons and other lessons I have how I view leadership beyond my own restaurants. As a past board chair of the Ohio Restaurant Hospitality Alliance, I had the opportunity to work with and advocate for restaurants and hospitality businesses across our state. That experience reinforced something I already knew from my own family businesses.
Small business leadership matters. It matters to employees, communities, local suppliers, young workers, and the future of Main Street.
You see, my grandparents sought the American dream. My father spent his life building it, and I have been blessed with the opportunity to continue it. Now my greatest responsibility is to preserve it for my children and hopefully someday for my grandchildren. No pressure, no pressure, guys. But preserving that dream requires more than the family pride.
It requires a business environment where small businesses can survive, reinvest, hire, and pass opportunity onto the next generation. Running a restaurant has never been easy over the years. We have faced recessions, supply disruptions, inflation, labor challenges, rising operating costs, but nothing, nothing compared to COVID, which nearly shut us down permanently. We survived because of our employees, our community, and our ability to adapt. I've spoken a lot about my family.
There's also my employee family. My family's business would not be where it is today without thousands of Ohioans that worked for us over the past six decades. Many started entry-level jobs as teenagers, saw opportunity in this industry and offered that the industry offered and worked their way to positions of greater responsibility. I'm grateful to members of Congress who recognize small businesses are still carrying the burden from the pandemic, inflation, and rising costs. Tax provisions such as accelerated depreciation make a real difference.
They allowed me to reinvest in my business, complete overdue improvements, renovate locations, and hire local Zanesville, Ohio contractors to do the work. Family businesses do not pass down, do not just pass down recipes. They pass down values, responsibilities, work ethic, integrity, and the belief that every generation should leave something better than it found. Restaurants and small businesses like mine are part of the American fabric. To our patrons, we're gathering places for first dates, anniversaries, birthdays, sports celebrations, and family milestones.
To our communities, we are employers, training grounds, and taxpayers, and anchors of the local economy. Thank you again for allowing me to share my life or my family's story. It is in many ways a story of America. May God bless our small businesses, the customers who support them, the employees who work them, the families who build them, and the United States of America.
Roger Williams
Gentleman yields back. Gentleman yields back. I now recognize Mr. Freeman for his five-minute opening remarks.
Philip Freeman
Chairman Williams, Ranking Member Velázquez, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Philip Freeman, and I'm the founder and CEO of Murphy's Naturals, a natural products company based in Raleigh, North Carolina, that manufactures plant-based mosquito repellents. I'm also the founder of the Loading Dock, a coworking and cowarehousing community serving nearly 1,300 members and 450 small businesses. I'm proud to testify on behalf of the US Chamber of Commerce and its Small Business Council, of which I'm a member. As we mark 250 years of American independence, there's no better time to reflect on the ultimate engine of this nation's prosperity, American small business.
My entrepreneurial journey didn't start in the traditional way, and I didn't have a formal finance background or education. It started on the Virginia farm where I was raised and later during my service as a deep-sea diving officer in the United States Navy. For decades, I filed away business ideas telling myself the time wasn't right.
But sitting in my garage in Raleigh, I looked at a simple problem that we had at home. My wife Pam, who's here, um, she is an absolute mosquito magnet, and we both disliked the chemical repellents that were on the market. Because I couldn't find an effective natural alternative, I developed one myself. So, garage-born. That is the American story: identifying a need, taking a risk, and building something from nothing.
What started in our garage has grown into a 120,000 square foot manufacturing facility, where we make 85% of our products and employ nearly 50 full-time team members. But scaling is never a straight line. Early on, I hit a massive roadblock, which was space. Traditional commercial leases were rigid, expensive, and completely mismatched for the bootstrap startup. I signed a multi-year personal guaranteed lease for a small space, outgrew it in six months, and found myself trapped.
There had to be a better way. When I finally found a larger facility, I decided to build a concept to help other entrepreneurs facing those same hurdles. I leased extra space and launched the Loading Dock. Today, we provide flexible, affordable co-warehousing for hundreds of startups across three campuses. Essentially, we were a startup starting a startup for startups, and and that is a little bit crazy and not well-advised, but it's worked.
But that is what small business owners do. We don't just solve our own problems, we build the infrastructure to help others solve theirs. But we can't do it alone. On behalf of entrepreneurs working around the clock, I want to highlight three urgent priorities for the committee. First, access to capital and flexible space.
The single greatest barrier for an early-stage company is infrastructure. Congress can unlock immense growth by expanding access to SBA lending tools and supporting flexible small business infrastructure. Second, regulatory clarity and innovation. Small businesses can't afford teams of lawyers. We need clear, accessible guidance from federal agencies so entrepreneurs have a clear path to bring forward disruptive, beneficial ideas.
Third, pathways for veterans and second-career founders. Our most successful founders are often veterans who bring decades of wisdom. Congress must continue to fund vital pipelines like Hiring Our Heroes and the Honor Foundation. We provide generous education opportunities for veterans. Imagine the economic impact if we could provide similar grants and favorable loans for veterans taking a startup risk.
Members of the committee, 250 years ago, our founders of this nation bet everything on a radical idea: that free people, given the opportunity, would build something extraordinary. The American Dream is not a relic of the past. It is alive in every garage, spare bedroom, and warehouse space across your districts. But it requires tending. It requires policies that lower barriers, reward responsibility, and trust in American ingenuity.
I'm here because I believe this committee has the power to make it easier for the next Philip Freeman to take that leap a little sooner, with the confidence that their country is the wind at their back. Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
Roger Williams
Gentleman yields back. Now recognize Ms. Shibunko-Moore for her five-minute opening remarks.
Anne Shybunko-Moore
Chairman Williams, Ranking Member Velázquez, and members of the committee. My name is Anne Shibunko-Moore, and I am the owner and CEO of GSE Dynamics.
We are a family-owned defense manufacturer on Long Island, New York. I'm honored to be here on behalf of the small businesses and manufacturers that drive our nation's economy. My company grew out of the cradle of aviation on Long Island. It was from Long Island's Roosevelt Field that Charles Lindbergh began his flight across the Atlantic. And it was on Long Island during the Golden Age of aviation following the Great War that manufacturers pioneered aircraft, not for wartime, but for peacetime, opening the skies for commercial flight.
And it was a Long Island company named Grumman Aerospace that transformed carrier-based aircraft during World War II. Grumman helped give the arsenal of democracy its wings. Later, Grumman answered the call to make the impossible real, crafting the Apollo lunar module that landed America on the moon. Grumman also built something else: my father Daniel Shybunko's career. My father was an engineer when the company encouraged him to start a small side business in 1971.
And eight years later, he left Grumman to run GSE Dynamics full-time. Decades after I walked the factory floor as a child, he invited me to join the company in 2001. And in 2003, GSE became a woman-owned small business, and I continued to work beside my dad until his passing in 2019. And today, GSE is a top woman-owned supplier for the US military, building complex assemblies for the B-52 bomber, the M1 Abrams tank, naval submarines, and many more. We are the top woman-owned small business supplier to DLA Aviation and a critical supplier for the US Navy's periscope mast fairings.
And with over 90 employees, we are among the 93% of US manufacturers classified as small businesses. This is my family story, and this is GSE's story. This is a true Long Island story, and today, just days from America's 250th anniversary, this is an American story. America's small businesses have always been where innovation takes flight. But as everyone in this room knows, America's success does not just happen; it must be built, it must be protected, and it must be strengthened.
The best investment in manufacturers comes from public policies that help small businesses like mine invest, grow, and thrive. First and foremost, that means protecting pro-growth tax policies like those Congress passed last year in HR 1. Provisions like immediate expensing are helping GSE invest in the future. Already this year, we have purchased a new five-axis machining center that will help us build better and faster. We're also expanding a facility and investing in new research to help keep GSE on the cutting edge.
Secondly, we need reliable access to capital because long before a product leaves the factory floor, manufacturers must invest in expensive equipment and raw materials to build it. That's why increasing SBA lending limits is so important, precisely as this committee did through the Made in America Manufacturing Finance Act. Third, we must address workforce shortages. Manufacturing offers great careers for highly skilled technicians, machinists, welders, tradespeople, along with administrative and professional staff.
We must strengthen employer-led workforce training and encourage more young people to see manufacturing as a career of purpose and opportunity. And finally, we must remember that our national security depends on a strong defense industrial base. To build more resilient supply chains, we need a 21st century permitting system. We need to protect pro-American, pro-manufacturing trade agreements like the USMCA, and we need more access to key inputs like critical minerals. And when I think about America's 250th anniversary, I think about the chance my father took 50 years ago in a country that rewards risk-takers.
I think about GSC's contribution, not just to Long Island's story as the cradle of aviation, but to America's story as the land of opportunity. A place where manufacturers don't just build products, we build families, and we build communities, and we build a stronger country. Fifty years from now, I hope another family business will be here telling its story, or maybe even my son James will be sharing GSC's next chapter. That will happen through your courage and your vision to back policies that strengthen America's industrial base. If our leaders work together, America will lead as the best place in the world to create and make things, and our dreams will take flight.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 9
Thank you. Well said. Gentlelady yields back. I now recognize Ms. Cool for her five-minute opening remarks.
Veronica Cool
Chairman Williams, Ranking Member Velázquez, Congressman D'Esposito, thank you very much for having me today. Fifteen years ago, I was sitting in my kitchen table wondering whether filing the paperwork for a tiny government subcontract was even worth the effort. Today, it's one of the greatest honors of my life to appear before Congress because that little opportunity became the foundation of a company that now helps strengthen communities across our entire country. That is the American dream. My name is Veronica Cool, and I'm the founder, president, and CEO of Cool & Associates LLC, a Maryland-based small business I started in 2011.
I was born in Dominican Republic, and I came to the US believing what millions of immigrants have believed for generations, that if I worked hard, if I kept learning, treating people with integrity, and I persevered, I could build a better life. And America gave me that opportunity. When I started my business, I didn't have investors, I didn't have venture capital or a family business I inherited. I had 20 years of banking experience, grit, and an idea that organizations could better serve people by building trust, not just translating words. And that little tiny idea became the basis for my company.
Today, our team helps government agencies across all aisles, hospitals, nonprofits, universities, and businesses communicate more effectively, engage communities, and solve very complicated issues. But our success, just like my fellow witnesses here, didn't happen overnight. Like every single entrepreneur, we had to work really hard and earn it. One of our very first government contracts was the tiny little thing as I mentioned earlier, and I remember thinking probably wasn't even worth it. The paperwork was excessive, the compliance reporting was extensive, and for us being tiny, it actually felt like more work than the work we were getting paid to do.
But, of course, we kept delivering and working on it. That one opportunity became another, and then another, and every project taught us something. Every satisfied client became a reference, every single problem, mistake, and challenge made us stronger. Recently, I had one of those full-circle moments that we all celebrate and hope for. During a really competitive procurement bid, I learned that the prime contractor and every subcontractor in that group had adjusted their schedule around ours because the agency wanted the Cool team included in the proposal.
We solve problems. We strengthen neighborhoods and we mentor future leaders. We create opportunities for others. We build legacies. That's what my father taught me.
My team experienced that firsthand during the COVID-19 pandemic. We supported the state of Maryland, Governor Hogan at that time, by translating and culturally adapting urgent public health information in a matter of hours so essential workers and multilingual communities could receive life-saving information when they needed it the most. We were proud to do it even though it required around-the-clock work, significant personal sacrifice, and tremendous resilience. Experiences like that have taught me that one important lesson: communication is economic infrastructure. And being in Baltimore, we know that ports and highways are communication, are transportation, but communication is an integral part of that.
When people understand how to access healthcare, workforce opportunities, government services, and small business resources, they show up and they participate. When they participate, businesses grow, communities become stronger, and our economy benefits. And as Congress looks to that next 250 years, I'm hoping for something simple. Please continue to create an environment where entrepreneurs can do what they do best: innovate, adapt, and build. Please provide greater predictability, reduce unnecessary administrative burdens, invest in workforce development and technology.
Please ensure that, that ensure that qualified small businesses have the opportunity to compete. The American dream I know did not guarantee success, but it did promise opportunity. That opportunity changed my life. And I hope together we can ensure it remains available for the future generation of entrepreneurs. I thank you for the opportunity and look forward to your questions.
Roger Williams
The lady yields back, those were great opening comments. Thank you for all of you. We'll now move to the member questions under the five-minute rule that we went over with you. I now recognize myself for five minutes. Mr. Adornato, successfully been in business for 68 years you said, crossing two generations, and according to the Pizza Today, your business is in the top 100 independently owned pizzerias in the nation.
My question is, what has enabled you to remain successful across multiple generations, and as you look to the future, what lessons do you help to pass down to the next generations that sit behind you to ensure that you continue for many years and many more generations to come?
Adrian Adornetta
You know, as I stated in my opening statement, Mr. Chairman, thank you for the question by the way. Just the work ethic that was passed down to me from my grandparents, my father, has helped us achieve that, our community, our great workforce that we've had in the past and currently, and hopefully in the future, reference the future, hopefully have more workforce development. We need that in hospitality industry, making sure that people realize that they can make a career of that. And obviously access to capital and expansion would help out greatly in continuing to achieve that award with Pizza Today in the future as well for the next generations to come.
Roger Williams
Great. Mr. Freeman, to you, you started your first company, Murphy's Naturals, in search of a natural bug repellent for your wife. That's a great story in itself. So after experiencing the firsthand challenges of starting and scaling back a business, scaling a business, you then launched your second business, The Loading Dock, which is a flexible warehouse space as you talked about where you help mentor and guide other growing entrepreneurs. So question is, can you share how The Loading Dock is helping other small business owners overcome barriers, grow their companies, and achieve the American dream?
Philip Freeman
Yes, sir, and thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the question. One of the biggest hurdles that I ran into starting off was I was a solopreneur.
I was doing things on my own. I didn't have much of a base of support to work from to ask questions about how you start a new business. It was really figuring it out myself in that scrappy way. There were many hurdles that I had to overcome. Some of them were, as I mentioned before, signing a multi-year lease for a warehouse and having to personally guarantee that when I really didn't know if my business would thrive or not.
I figured there had to be a better way to do this. So what we did is we created a vast amount of warehouse space and we divided it up into individual units. And that allows small business to come in and use as little as 100 square feet to support their business. And that's an incredible thing for them to have that flexibility. And now we have units as big as 2,400 square feet.
But we don't require a lease and we don't require a personal guarantee. Matter of fact, they don't even have to buy the material handling equipment that they need to move their goods, to receive goods, to warehouse goods, and to ship goods. We supply all of that and it's shared. So by removing some of those hurdles, it made a massive difference for people to be willing to start something. And I would never want anyone to regret never starting something because of those hurdles.
Now, we can't remove the hurdles to entrepreneurialism, but we can lower them. And if we lower them and we get a few more people to say, "Yes, I'm going to give it a try," then that matters. And then lastly, as far as that's concerned, is we've built a community. When you think about all those different entrepreneurs working in the same building together, they share ideas, they commiserate, they speak about the victories, the challenges. And, you know, that's a big deal.
When you have other people to work with, even though they're not part of the same company, that's a very, very big deal and to have that community. And that's all around Murphy's Naturals at our main headquarters. So we drive energy from all of those people and several of those people became team members at Murphy's Naturals as well. So very beneficial.
Roger Williams
Well, thank you for that. And in the limited time I've got, Ms. Scheib-Enckum, since the founding of our nation, small businesses have played a vital role in strengthening America's ability to defend itself. Could you speak briefly to the unique role that small businesses like yours play in supporting America's warfighters today? And more broadly, can you talk about what's critical for our national security that we continue to foster an environment where small business can start, grow, and thrive?
Anne Shybunko-Moore
Thank you very much for the question. It's a big question for something very important that we all do. So to support obviously the defense industrial base brings pride every day not only to me, my family, but to my employees, which is the most important thing that I have, right, my workforce. So I think right now I'm going to get to the end of your question first with the time allotted here. We have to focus on workforce and make sure that we continue to train the workforce that can manufacture the parts that we need for our national security.
We need to make sure that we are building our supply chain. We need to make sure that we're building capacity and capability in this nation in which right now I believe it was referenced it's diminishing right now. With all the different business dealings that are going on, we absolutely have a diminishing supply chain in our defense industrial base, which poses a threat. And I also believe we need to do some more branding and marketing for manufacturing. We have to make sure that people understand that it is a noble job to be in a manufacturing company.
My time is up.
Johnny Olszewski
I saw that. That's why I went to the end of your question first. Thank you.
I now recognize the ranking member for five minutes of questions.
Veronica Cool
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. It's the 250th anniversary, so Ms. Kull, I'll start with a fun question. Why is America the best place to start a small business?
Oh my gosh, the United States of America rewards innovation. When an immigrant can come with the focus and the determination to build a business from the ground up like me, that's rewarded.
That is absolutely rewarded. And being able to create jobs, invest in my neighborhoods, invest in my communities, you can't do that anywhere else in the world. So, happy birthday.
Johnny Olszewski
Happy birthday America indeed. And Ms. Cool, your story is an inspiration. And I think speaks to that promise. I know that minority committee staff released two reports warning about the ways in which the Trump administration is draining Main Street of critical immigrant staff and entrepreneurs. So Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to put those reports into the record.
Thank you. Ms. Cool, can you speak to how you see President Trump's mass deportations as hurting your client's ability to find and keep workers and make sales?
Veronica Cool
Well, I can speak for the perspective of seeing what's happening in my communities and the organizations we serve. When there's uncertainty around immigration, many employers report greater difficulty recruiting and retaining workers. And the community declines in participating because hesitation, they're fearful. So whether we're talking about healthcare, workforce, we need stability. Trust matters.
My hope is that we can maintain a legal or a lawful immigration system that also serves the small businesses so that our workers can grow and our communities can feel more stable.
Johnny Olszewski
Appreciate that perspective. Ms. Shibanko-Moore, someone who has a difficult name, I appreciate sharing that with you. Women-owned small businesses saw 2.3 billion less in federal contract dollars than in 2024. The WOSB program is severely underused and the goals are unmet. Can you speak to how bolstering this critical program might help small businesses and the industrial base?
Anne Shybunko-Moore
Yeah, absolutely, and thank you for that question indeed. So I think in general, before you get to the woman-owned small business specific, though, I think you have to accept the fact that there are more barriers to entry into federal contracting as a whole. So I would say that across the board, it's hard to get companies to again enter into federal contracting. And then as you narrow into the woman-owned small business, you have to ensure that they're mentored and trained and understand all the requirements and regulations in order to succeed. And when I was on the National Women's Business Council a few years back, that was really the focus.
You can bring them to the federal contracting world, but you really have to ensure that they will succeed in it. And I think that's definitely a focus of mine in terms of making sure that we are mentoring and training and working together as partners in that federal contracting world. Small business community is very close. And we do tend to want everyone to rise and succeed. So I think it's imperative that again we continue to look at what the red tape is to get into federal contracting, that we minimize it.
I know the administrator is working on that. The access again to capital so that women-owned businesses can succeed and grow. And overall just be able to have a conversation, communication direct with the government, which I will say in my years of experience, I'm thrilled to see that there is strong communication right now between the small business leaders and specifically Defense Logistics Agency. I've never seen the support right now because I think they recognize the need and the imperative nature of making sure that these businesses thrive.
Johnny Olszewski
Appreciate that. And then Mr. Friedman, you write that several of your product components can't be sourced in the US and that, quote, tariffs will eliminate profits and put this innovative technology into a loss position. Can you just expand a little bit upon that and sort of the impacts you're seeing? Thanks.
Philip Freeman
I'll be happy to. Thank you. So, yeah, tariffs, tariffs are definitely a challenge, especially when you don't have the time to plan for them because oftentimes we're pricing products for retail and giving those price points well in advance. And we've had the situation where tariffs have hit us in a way that we had to absorb a lot of that additional cost. But we show adaptability.
And where it created some challenges for us, it also created opportunities as well in terms of because we're a manufacturer, people actually asked us if we could manufacture for them as a US-based company. So there are challenges with it, but there are also benefits.
Thank you for that. I see my time's expired. Happy birthday, America. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Speaker 19
Gentleman yields back. I now recognize Mr. Meuser from the great state of Pennsylvania for five minutes.
Daniel Meuser
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all for being here very much. We're glad to be with you. It seems like a very strong and positive discussion we're having, so that's that's very important to hear. You know, I spent a lot of time helping grow a small business to a large business myself for almost 25 years.
And you know, I sometimes when people say, what's it take? I say, well, find out what you like, be committed to it, and in 20 years you might have something. So it, you know, we there's a lot of the environment matters. Of course, small business accounts for 99% of of not employment, but of the businesses, about 60% of the employment. So it's really the truly the proverbial but literal backbone of the United States economy.
Taxes, regulations, skills development, workforce, overall environment that can be created within a state, you know, state regulations like in Pennsylvania matter a lot. We tend to have we're very, very overly burdened with regulations in Pennsylvania. We need to change that versus Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Texas, where all the jobs are going to. You know, consumer demand, I mean, that's a big part of of government, right, making sure that interest rates are there, access to capital, of course, all of those regulations. But outside of that, well, you know, there's an old saying too, just get out of my way, which you probably say on occasion.
But then again, from OSHA and many of the other regulations and workers' compensation, you know, all these things are are definitely necessary. You know, there's a reason, I just looked this up, you know, the EU in 1995 had a GDP of $8.3 trillion, $800 billion more than the United States. We were at 7.6. Today, the EU's at 21.2 and we're at 30 trillion. So we're obviously doing a lot right as far as growing an economy.
So just based upon the conversations and statements you've been making, and Ms. Moorman, I'm going to start with you if you don't mind. I'm from Long Island originally, by the way, so I see your business is in Hauppauge. And I grew up there and I remember Grumman extremely well. I think everybody worked at Grumman there for a while. But congratulations on your on your business.
What what what, if you were sitting in my seat, if you were making some of these governmental rules and all, what what do you think you need to make you grow better over the next five years?
Anne Shybunko-Moore
Yeah, thank you. And and happy to hear that you're from Long Island. I think right now people need to recognize that, first of all, small businesses and manufacturing to me is a center aisle issue. Everyone should support small businesses and manufacturing.
And at the end of the day, no matter what decisions are happening here, we still have to work every day, make our product, and feed, for myself, 90 families, right? At the end of the day, that's what I'm responsible for. So I am always looking at the decisions that are being done and made here, ensuring that, again, in order to grow, access to capital is always the key. I'd like to buy more equipment. I'd like to grow my capacity, I'd like to grow my capability, continue to grow and expand and support the US defense industrial base, and then obviously create jobs that people can be proud of, that people can support their families on.
So sometimes I have to stop hearing the noise that is sometimes out there and focus that I just have to continue waking up every morning and making the products that I make and meet the goals and production rates that I have.
Daniel Meuser
Products, people, process, all the P's, you gotta nail. Payment, very important in business. The Working Family Tax Cut, which was in the big beautiful bill, you mentioned earlier the importance of the 199A, the bonus depreciation, the R&D tax cuts, perhaps the overtime also help your employees. I'm going to move out to Ms. Cole. Could you maybe answer the same question as far as what would you like to see improved from a regulatory, government, tax standpoint for your business to grow better over the next five years?
Veronica Cool
I would say predictability. We need to be able to plan. For us to invest, buy equipment, hire people, same thing with my clients. I cannot get commitments on contracts or proposals because they themselves are impacted what may happen tomorrow. So as we're planning to feed our families, to keep our folks employed, to pay for kids' colleges, mortgages, we can't afford to go out and make willy-nilly decisions because tomorrow the rules have changed.
So being able to have predictability is a priority.
Adrian Adornetta
That's very important. I very much agree. Mr. Adonetto, your same question to you.
Adonetto. Yes, sir, thank you for the question.
Adonetto.
Adrian Adornetta
I would say obviously predictability as well, access to capital, continue to do, you know, specifically you've done some things with no tax on tips on the federal level, and that's helped my industry specifically, the employees that receive those.
Pardon me, my time has expired. Chairman, I yield back.
Roger Williams
Gentleman yields back. I now recognize Mr. Tran from California, the great state of California, for five minutes.
Derek Tran
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ranking Member, for convening today's hearing. Thank you to the witnesses for being here. For 250 years, the American Dream has been built by people who believed hard work and took a leap of faith to build something of their own. Nowhere is that story more powerful than in Southern California.
There's our small business community in Southern California. In Los Angeles and Orange County, I see it every day. These are family-owned restaurants, manufacturers, contractors, startups, and neighborhood shops. They are run by entrepreneurs from every background, including Asian Americans, Latinos, and immigrant business owners who have helped power our economy and create good-paying jobs. They represent the very best of America.
This committee has done real bipartisan work for this Congress, moving bill after bill with support from both sides of the aisle. At a time when Congress feels more divided than ever, this committee has shown that bipartisan progress is still possible. But good bipartisan bills sitting on the Senate floor does not help anyone on Main Street. In fact, there are over 20 bipartisan small business bills that have passed this House and are now stalled in the Senate. The Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship under the leadership of Senator Joni Ernst has held just a handful of markups this Congress, all last year and none this year.
And while those bipartisan bills stall, small businesses across America cannot afford to wait. They are facing raising costs, uncertainty, uncertainty, and economic pressures every single day. They are dealing with President Trump's trade war, tariffs that raises the costs of supplies, inflation, the loss of the Affordable Care Act tax credit, and the cost of oil and energy skyrocketing due to the President's war of choice in Iran. That is why Senate gridlock is so costly. Every month bipartisan bills sit without Senate consideration is a month small business owners go without relief while costs keeps climbing around them.
Main Street is asking Congress for help, and right now Chairwoman Ernst isn't answering. The Small Business Committee has proved bipartisan progress is possible, now the Senate needs to match that urgency and act. Ms. Cole, from your perspective working with small businesses, is President Trump's erratic policies making it harder for entrepreneurs?
Veronica Cool
Speaking from my perspective, the lack of predictability certainly impacts me as a small business. You know, and so again, anyone we work with, whether it's a client, whether it's a partner, whether it's a vendor, without knowing what's happening tomorrow, we're hampered.
Derek Tran
Let me follow up with what would it mean for Main Street if Senate Republicans sit on these bipartisan bills while financial pressure keeps building up?
Veronica Cool
You know, again, speaking from my perspective, I can tell you that we as small businesses need improved procurement access, improved access to technical assistance, support for new technologies like AI. So when things are delayed repeatedly, we cannot make decisions, we cannot hire comfortably, we can't invest in future plans.
Derek Tran
Ms. Cole, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced they'll make temporary visa holders leave America to apply for green cards, something that I'm actually working with the Judiciary Committee to oppose. How will that policy hurt immigrant entrepreneurs and the Americans that they employ?
Veronica Cool
You know, we mentioned at the very beginning how the United States rewards innovation. When we do not know, regardless of the status, whether you're able to stay or not, whether tomorrow the rug gets pulled from you, that impacts our ability to make decisions. I feel like a broken record, apologies for that, but not knowing if a status or a current small business will not be able to function tomorrow prevents us from bidding on things, prevents us from hiring, from paying our workers. It's that simple.
Speaker 23
Shifting gears a bit, healthcare costs are still a barrier to entrepreneurship for Americans looking to take the leap of faith and start a small business. Ms. Cole, how would expanding healthcare through Medicaid and the ACA help aspiring entrepreneurs join the business community?
Speaker 20
It's actually one of the main reasons people do not start small businesses because they need to have their family covered. So when we don't have access to healthcare, we're unable to make or take that innovative risk to launch the business and grow the business.
Anne Shybunko-Moore
With the few seconds I have left, Ms. Shybunko-Moore, do you have anything to add to that question?
Again, I echo the predictability, but I think you also if you were to look through the lens of a small business owner, just please look at all the risks that we are trying to mitigate every day. It's healthcare, it's the cost of material, it's the cost of salaries, it's the cost of living. So please, these are stackable for us. We're dealing with this every day as you're voting on one issue at a time.
Thank you so much, and with that I yield back.
Roger Williams
Gentleman yields back, I now recognize Ms. King-Hinds from the Great Northern Mariana Islands for five minutes.
Kimberlyn King-Hinds
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I think as we celebrate America's 250th anniversary, one of the greatest lessons that we can learn from small businesses is resilience.
I've heard you tell your stories about having to endure the pandemic, have to endure changing regulations, lack of clarity, and just the changing business dynamics, right? And so, folks back home, small businesses back home right now have barely recovered from a super typhoon that hit us two months ago. And as I head back home tomorrow, I gotta board up because another typhoon is on the way, right? And, you know, the one beautiful thing that we saw after this last typhoon was, you know, these businesses, they lost inventory, you know, they lost their roofs, they lost equipment, but they quickly came back the next day. They cleaned, you know, they started rebuilding and people just started helping one another.
And the one thing that I've realized having been a member for 18 months is that, you know, whether you're from the Marianas or from the United States, the continental United States, right, our communities are built by the same values, which is faith, family, hard work, and the belief that tomorrow can be better than today. And I feel that my responsibility as a member of Congress is to ensure that you are given every opportunity in terms of, you know, just some of the policies that are out there to thrive so that this country can continue on this great American path. And so, I want to yield the remainder of my time to you, and we'll start with Mr. Adornetto to just, if there's one policy that you can change, what would it be? And I want everybody to have equal time, so I have about 2:50. Please share.
Adrian Adornetta
In my industry, credit card swipe fees. They are approaching more of my profit and loss than what I pay for benefits for my employees.
Philip Freeman
For my industry at Murphy's Naturals, we fall under the US EPA, and it would be really helpful from an innovative standpoint if we were able to have ways, have people who could advocate for us for bringing forward new and inventive ways of using natural products that don't necessarily conform to the strict guidelines that are in place now where we could actually add new ingredients, because the list has been the same for a very long time on active and inerts. So to have the ability to introduce new ingredients, natural ingredients, would be a huge help.
Anne Shybunko-Moore
Thank you very much for the time. Again, in my industry, I'm going to say the word predictability again and ensuring that demand signals are clear for the defense industry, making sure that we are able to buy again the raw material that we need to get. So we need to talk much more about funding and how we can manage cash better in the small business so that we can grow and buy new equipment and grow capability, which I have mentioned. But the other that I'll say with these few seconds left is that I think we have to remember we're celebrating 250 years, and we're all now thinking what does this next long game look like, the next 250 years. And I am hoping and praying every day, not only in my short life in perspective, that I can pass on my company to my family, but also that we just continue to focus again on this long game of small businesses and manufacturing.
I believe, Chairman, you mentioned the architects, right? Well, I'm curious what drawings we're drawing right now for the next 250 years of what US manufacturing looks like, and I do hope that we are again looking at the long game, the decisions that are going to impact us for these next 250 years.
Thank you.
Veronica Cool
So echoing a lot of what my fellow witnesses have mentioned, for me, it needs to be language access. It's not just symbolic to put something in a foreign language so we can access it. The world is global. Our community is global regardless of what anyone's thinking. And when we don't provide access in simple language, we are missing a swath of the population.
That's our workforce. That's the future doctors, the future architects. These are the people that are driving the next 250 years. When issues are complex and not easily digestible, we are excluding folks. Along with language access, one of the main things that can be done is technical assistance, especially around new technologies like AI.
It's not going anywhere. So do we have access to resources where small businesses can be supported in learning and implementing those tools so that we are able then to function and continue to be competitive? I'm out of time, I yield back. Thank you.
Roger Williams
Gentlelady yields back. I now recognize Ms. Goodlander from the great state of New Hampshire for five minutes.
Maggie Goodlander
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to our witnesses for being here today and for sharing your American small business stories. It's exactly the right spirit for this week, for this moment, because we've gathered in the 250th year of the greatest experiment in self-government that the world has ever known. 250 years ago this week, the Second Continental Congress, and Congress doesn't get a lot of great reviews these days, but we did do one very good thing 250 years ago, and that was in creating a five-person subcommittee to draft a declaration. The effort was led by a 33-year-old Virginian, Thomas Jefferson. He spent 17 days in a rented room in Philadelphia, and what he produced, what that congressional subcommittee produced, was probably the best thing Congress has ever produced, and it was probably the most consequential document in the history of human freedom.
We hold these truths to be self-evident. Straightforward, not bureaucratic. Just a clear statement that every human being is created equal and entitled to rights, to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I had a chance a few weeks ago to spend some time with three extraordinary small businesses in my state of New Hampshire. Our motto as a state is Live Free or Die, and we have family farmers who have been operating their farms for 250 years.
Their ancestors fought in the Revolution, and they are continuing to fight to keep these small businesses afloat. One of the things I talked about with these three incredible small businesses was how have you stayed in business for 250 years? And really, I think the answer to how small businesses, how America stays forever young, is a constant reinvention. And Ms. Cole, you said it so well, that reinvention is the small business superpower. It is constantly reinventing to solve problems and to seize opportunities.
And you have all done that in your own small businesses. But the through line to me in this hearing has been the absolute urgency in giving you the predictability and the clarity that you need to continue to stay forever young and to fuel our economy.
We know that kleptocracy, that arbitrary and capricious decision-making is the enemy of predictability and clarity. Kleptocracy is bad for small business. Lawless and unconstitutional taxation is bad for small businesses. In fact, they were the sources of the Revolution. And so as I've listened to small businesses across the state of New Hampshire, we come back again and again to the unconstitutional, to the corrupt and extremely costly tariffs that President Trump unilaterally imposed on every small business in this country.
We challenged those tariffs in court. We were successful in the Supreme Court. We are pressing for reimbursement for every unconstitutional dollar that was taxed by this president. Mr. Freeman, you spoke about the impact of tariffs on your small business. Have you sought to be reimbursed for these unconstitutional taxes?
Philip Freeman
Certainly as a small business, every bit of cash that we can have, that we can deploy is critical. So, yes, I mean, we have submitted for refunds of tariffs.
Philip Freeman
No, but we just received an update actually yesterday that we will be receiving a credit, actually coming through one of our vendors who actually imported, they were the importer of record, and they let us know about a credit that we would be receiving. And we just recently were able to go through the process of getting on the portal and submitting for those that we had purchased directly from overseas suppliers.
Speaker 25
Look, the amount of time and effort and cost that has been put on every small business in this country to recoup taxes that never should have been imposed in the first place is outrageous. We are working around the clock to press this administration to issue these reimbursements way more quickly and with way less red tape and hassle. You shouldn't have to have an army of lawyers to be able to get back what is owed to you and never should have been taken from you in the first place. So I thank you all for being here today and with that I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Jimmy Patronis
Gentlelady yields back. I now recognize Mr. Patronis and one of the great entrepreneur restaurateurs in Florida from that great state for five minutes.
I got so excited about Adrian being here. I'm telling you, so thank you, Mr. Chairman. My family's been in the same family restaurant business for 70 years. This is a cool slate of folks you invited up. No offense to anybody else, but I'm going to nerd out a little bit.
My uncle and dad had started back in '58 and now my kids are working there, so three generations. But it's tough, it's tough working with family. And yeah, you're singing to the choir when you speak interchange fees and card swipe fees. Not everybody here understands what that means, but everybody here has a credit card. Every single one of you use a credit card when you go out to eat.
But did you know that at Adrian's restaurant, every time you swipe that card, it costs him anywhere from 4 to 5% out of his pocket so you can get your miles, so you can get your rebates? You know, it's great when you use that Costco card and you get 3% back, but you probably didn't realize Adrian's the one paying for it. And so, yeah, the credit card swipe fees is something. And we're in a society now, back when I was in the state legislature, I even advocated for a bill that said businesses had to take cash because I still feel like there's an importance to having legal tender that's not, you know, some credit card managed type of doing business.
But it is what it is. We're in a society now where credit cards make up 75% of your business or more. You know, yeah. But that's, look, it's, but thank God, it's intoxicating. The restaurant business, where else do you get to see somebody celebrate an engagement or an anniversary or a birthday?
And they can go eat at anybody's restaurant in the whole entire town, but they decide to come to yours, you know? And so, um, it's, it's exciting to see you. I will ask some questions. Um, I'm assuming as long as your business has been around, is your dad still around?
Jimmy Patronis
Yeah, I lost my dad in 2020. So my dad and uncle were partners. They shared a desk, you know. Um, they worked shifts. Um, my brothers, I was there for 30 years.
And then my brothers now still, I'm the baby. Um, we still, to kind of get along from keeping at each other's throat, they still clock in and clock out. If you want a paycheck, you're in the building taking care of the customer. If you're not there taking care of the customer, then, um, no sense being paid. Um, so now since I'm in Congress, I don't get paid.
So, um, so when you worked through that transition, um, did you have siblings also in the business with you?
Adrian Adornetta
I did not. I did not. I was an only child. Uh, we actually, uh, Congressman, share the same starting year, 1950, I think I heard you say that your father started his. Uh, no, I'm an only child, so the barrier wasn't that, uh, that I didn't want it and worked for it to have the opportunity to talk to my father.
My father wanted me to take it over. For us being a small business was just the access of how do we do this, the legalities, watching for what tax implications we could trip into, talking to accountants. And, uh, they were all great people and professionals that helped us out through it. But we spent a lot of time and it got to one point where I believe we were six months in and said, hey, listen, the founder wants to do it, he has a buyer, it happens to be his son, let's figure out these legalities and the, and the tax implications and let's get this done. We're just drug out money and bills and further and further.
So it was, uh, it was a good situation. I do know a lot of family businesses, maybe some on this panel that have, uh, different family members, whether it's aunts, uncles, siblings, that, uh, can be quite contentious. And, uh, that's unfortunate because that's how some businesses lose and, uh, fall apart and families split apart.
Jimmy Patronis
Sure. And then those are the struggles we're going through right now. Now I've got, um, it was just four boys working for my dad and my uncle had no kids. Um, but now all my nieces are in it. And so my mom went from having four boys to seven granddaughters.
So now the, the business is overrun with women running it now, which is great. They do a great job. Um, but it's, uh, it's still that as much as I would love to, um, work with my family every day, some days I would love to, you know, vote them off the island, uh, because of the, the challenges you run into.
Jimmy Patronis
It's okay. You don't, you don't have stock yet, but maybe if he's, if he takes advantage of the tax laws, he'll start gifting you the maximum amount every single year early on. So, um, but it's, uh, it's just an honor to, to see still people wanting to be in the restaurant business. You, what you've got, you cannot start it today. And, uh, you know, God bless your dad for doing what he did.
I yield, Mr. Chairman.
Speaker 15
Gentleman yields back and I now recognize Mr. Schmidt from the great state of Kansas for five minutes.
Derek Schmidt
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and appreciate the witnesses being here. It's been a pleasant discussion to listen to with folks sort of analytically discussing information. Doesn't always happen around this place. I was in a hearing yesterday in a different committee where I was embarrassingly between two folks shouting at each other and I carefully read my notes while trying to look impartial. So, uh, just a handful of questions.
I was thinking about that famous line that President Reagan used, the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." And thinking about what I would characterize as part of the intellectual tension that I've heard discussed here. On the one hand, we need certainty, we need government policy that is predictable, we need to not be whipsawed all the time. I understand that. And on the other hand, sort of the spirit of 1776, there are times when you just have to make bold change and you're worried a little less about the short-term uncertainty and a little more about the long-term trends and kind of where you're headed.
And those have been in tension throughout our history. So a couple of questions along that line. Regulatory reform generally. I always love the sort of top-line back-and-forth debates that you hear about are regulations good or bad. And the answer is they're both.
They often have good purpose and many of them we need. And on the other hand, it's possible to have too much of a good thing and you impose compliance costs that are unnecessary and create other harm, right? And so it's a balance. I've pointed out before that the year I was born in 1968, the Code of Federal Regulations, which of course is the compiled list of all of the law made by bureaucrats, made by folks with authority we've delegated to them in Congress, was about 50,000 pages. Today it's about 200,000 pages.
It's quadrupled in my lifetime. And I guess I'd just invite, we'll just go down the line in the time I have, I'd invite you to comment on regulatory compliance cost and are there areas we should be looking from your vantage point where perhaps we've gone overboard and we could scale it back a bit, free up some freedom of motion on your part. Mr. Stader-Neto?
Adrian Adornetta
You know, the first one that comes to my mind is the Affordable Care Act. As a small business, I was stretching around everywhere trying to find how's this work, what can I do, what's my resource, even called the 1-800 number at the time, what would this be going back to 2013, 14. Still get confused by it. I've talked to insurance agents that I try to deal with and they're confused by it. Recently we retired a brand that was 51 years old that we didn't mention in my testimony.
As a result of that, I went from a large employer, if you can believe it or not, three restaurants in rural Ohio open in the evening, so a large employer to a small employer. Just that change alone was about $3,500 a month for virtually the same healthcare that we had prior because of status. And so that's where I had some ongoing issues with trying to figure out the regulations on that and make sure that I'm staying compliant, make sure I'm doing the right paperwork because I do all of our own payroll and things of that in-house and just make sure we're not getting ourselves in trouble.
Thank you very much. Mr. Freeman.
Philip Freeman
And thank you for the question and opportunity to speak to it. I mentioned EPA regulatory earlier. Another thing that's a challenge there, and definitely the EPA, you know, serves its purposes, but there are challenges for small businesses too when you have red tape that you have to work through. Each individual state, many of them, I'd say about 37 to 38 of them have their own regulatory bodies, but sometimes they're in conflict with one another. And we have to hire consultants.
Those consultants are very expensive. It would be nice if there were greater coordination between the US EPA and the state bodies to streamline that so we didn't have the conflicting regulations between them. But that would be something that would be incredibly beneficial to us to have one guiding policy for repellent products.
Thank you very much. Time's up, Ms. Shabon-Gomore.
Anne Shybunko-Moore
Sure. So in my business, federal acquisition requirements is everything. And so my issue right now is obviously we're advancing technology in the sector, manufacturing sector, but the federal regulations flow down with cybersecurity right now are incredibly burdensome. I don't think the flow down to the supply chain and small businesses was necessarily assessed in terms of how it impacts operations every day. And I think we need to look at how we are flowing down the cybersecurity requirements with CUI and other issues.
Roger Williams
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank the witnesses.
Gentleman yields back. Now we have recognized Mr. Jack from the great state of Georgia, and it appears all the little Jacks are here.
Mr. Jack
I wish that were the case, but Mr. Chairman, I am delighted to be joined today by my former high school basketball coach. And you as the coach of our congressional baseball team, I thought he could hopefully share some embarrassing stories about me to you. But I want to acknowledge Coach Michael Wilder and his wife Kathy and their entire family for coming. Thank you, and they're here to celebrate America's 250th birthday as are we all this weekend. And to celebrate, last year the President of the United States enacted HR 1, the Working Families Tax Cut.
And I would like to start my line of questioning hearing from the small business owners before us as to how helpful HR 1 was and continues to be to your business. So if we could start with Mr. Iadonato, I would welcome your comments and feedback.
Adrian Adornetta
Forgive me, I'm not well-versed on that. Can you explain what those tax cuts would do for me?
The one big beautiful bill. Yes.
Adrian Adornetta
Of course. I mentioned my open testimony, but I'll reiterate the accelerated depreciation where I can buy equipment, American-made equipment, true out of St. Louis, Missouri, Manitowoc ice machines out of Manitowoc, Wisconsin. They were great help to us in accelerating doing remodels and facelifts to our restaurants.
Philip Freeman
Yes, sir. Definitely when you take pass-through organizations, making those tax cuts permanent so that we're more in line with the C-corp type corporations, that's a big deal for us as well to make those tax cuts permanent.
Speaker 30
And if I can ask you as well, Mr. Freeman, what more could Congress be doing to make life easier and more affordable for small business?
Philip Freeman
In a little bit different vein, access to capital. That is the biggest thing and has been the biggest challenge and hurdle for us is having access to capital sufficient for the growth that we have in front of us and the opportunity.
Adrian Adornetta
I would actually have to agree. Again, going through a restaurant remodel, that was one of the hardest challenges was to access capital and to get hands on money to reinvest in an industry that sometimes banks don't want to open their pocketbooks for.
Speaker 30
One of the issues I care deeply about is deregulation and would welcome thoughts from both of you gentlemen on deregulatory efforts, what you would like to see accomplished across that as we have a few more months left in this Congress.
Adrian Adornetta
I welcome deregulation. There's some things with some regulatory things with healthcare that I would probably be more concerned with than anything else.
Sure. Mr. Freeman.
Philip Freeman
From a regulatory perspective, understand regulation. I would say when it goes too far and it's a hindrance to business and the progress of business, anything that can be done to help reduce the friction for small business would be incredibly helpful.
Ms. Shabon-Gomore.
Anne Shybunko-Moore
I would say any tax policy that promotes growth is obviously critical. So, the immediate expensing in regards to capital investments that I'm making, the R&D tax that was done, anything that puts more cash into my operations where I can then reinvest and again be innovative and be that entrepreneur that we are is critical.
Mr. Jack
Well, Mr. Chairman, I want to highlight just a few of the things that I've heard from constituents in my district, specifically what we accomplished one year ago this Saturday. We prevented the largest tax increase in American history by making President Trump's tax cuts permanent, saving the average American family from a $1,700 tax increase. We delivered the largest tax cut in American history for working and middle-class Americans, including an estimated 15% tax cut for Americans earning between $30,000 and $80,000 annually. We preserved the double standard deduction for more than 90% of taxpayers, strengthened the child tax credit, and eliminated taxes on tips, taxes on overtime, so hardworking Americans can keep more of what they earn. Also want to note specifically in my home state of Georgia, since HR 1 became law, manufacturers have announced billions of dollars in new investments, not just across the country, but also in my state, including new steel mills, pharmaceutical facilities, battery plants, and advanced manufacturing projects.
In my home state of Georgia specifically, companies have announced $223 million rare earth magnet manufacturing facility and a $400 million poultry processing plant, which means a lot to our farmers, means a lot to the ag community in Georgia. So, for those actions and stories that I've heard from my district, I'm very grateful. I wish you all well this weekend, hope you're able to enjoy the festivities, and Mr. Chairman, I applaud you for hosting this committee hearing. I hope 250 years from now, people are looking back to our transcript and enjoying the conversation we had as our country celebrates its 500th year anniversary, 250 years from Saturday. I yield back.
Roger Williams
Nice. Three of us have already committed to be here 250 years. Gentleman yields back and now before we close, I have another question as does the ranking member have a question. So, let me say this, each of you is part of a multi-generational business or has got the potential to have one and pass one down to generations. In my business back in Texas, we now, I'm second generation, third generation is running it, and fourth generation is coming down on Saturday.
So, we're pretty excited about that. But and I was glad to see the federal income tax exemption go from 15 million per person to 30 million per couple under the working tax cuts. So, what does that, you know, we talk about always we're saving the family farm, we're doing this and that, but it's not the family farm we're saving, it's all businesses by being able to pass this down without having to pay taxes. So, what does this change mean to you and how does it impact your business to pass your business on to the next generation? Maybe each one of you can answer that.
Adrian Adornetta
Very grateful for the change. It's greatly impactful. It'll help in our situation. Hopefully, Mr. Chairman, I'll be living many more years to come, but I hope that that stays at that level or possibly increases and other vehicles to help out in passing a family business down to the next generation.
Philip Freeman
Yes, sir. As a founder of our companies, one thing that would be meaningful for us is the ability to tweak what has been put into place. For us, if you are a C-corp, there is the founder discount, which is significant when there's any sort of transaction for the company. But we were established originally as an S-corp, so not eligible for that reason. So, if it could be expanded to S-corps that later became C-corps, which we did, that would be very meaningful for our particular situation.
Anne Shybunko-Moore
I think in my industry, the unpredictability is the only thing that is predictable. So, any decisions that are made that can again provide stability is critical for me. Anything that we can do to invest and reinvest not only in my company, but regional manufacturing and national manufacturing is just something that I'm incredibly passionate about.
And so I want to make sure that when you're making decisions, that they're based on entrepreneurship and innovation and risk mitigation and how do we create the best manufacturing companies in this next generation and more importantly, how do we stay relevant with the pace at which technology is moving. Make sure that we're looking at steps that can be made so that again, we can continue to pass on our companies and keep them private, right? That's important to me personally, that my sons are able to maintain private ownership and that it maintains a manufacturing company, not a financial company. I think that's something we have to focus on.
Okay, Ms. Ghul.
Veronica Cool
Yeah, for me is similar. You know, we haven't been able to explore all the benefits. I mean, definitely have to engage my accountant and my lawyer on that and similarly we're an S corp, so there's definitely opportunity or additional costs for me to figure out how to do this. And I'll echo what my witnesses, my fellow witnesses have mentioned. When major legislation like this is passed and we aren't looking at small businesses and seeking their input in advance, we have to catch up.
So as long as we're investing the energy to ensure we have the resources to hire, to invest over the long haul, to think about the next generation, my own children, 22 and 24, how they can come into the business, all these pieces take time to plan.
Johnny Olszewski
And I thank the chairman for an opportunity to go a little deeper. Thank you all again for your time. I have a quick observation and then a quick question, I hope. One is, it seems clear, access to capital, huge issue. Yes, yes, yes, yes.
I've heard it over and over again from this panel and I couldn't agree more, which is why I'm concerned about a change that the SBA made back in February of '26 around lending policies that would bar all small businesses with any amount of ownership by non-citizens lawfully in the US from participating in the flagship 7A and 504 CDC lending programs. That change was subsequently extended to the surety bond and microloan programs. And so my concern is as we're talking about access to capital, we are affirmatively taking away access to capital through some of these changes. And so since I didn't have time before, I just want to add to the record again and ask unanimous consent to put a letter of concern that members from the committee have shared, Mr. Chairman.
So ordered.
Johnny Olszewski
Thank you. And just would reiterate that I hope that we can do something on that issue. I think it's a very specific, tangible way that we can make access to capital available for more people and would welcome you all in that work. My question is really around housing, about sort of the cost of housing generally. Ms. Shibunko Moore, I know that you spoke specifically about the Long Island press.
If others want to weigh in as well, but just sort of talking about, you talked briefly about sort of the impact you're seeing for employees as the cost of housing for starter homes is now over a million dollars in many places, people are turning 40 before they can buy their first home, and just what you're seeing on that landscape.
Anne Shybunko-Moore
Sure, and Long Island certainly is facing a lot of housing issues. So I will say that I've been working with local legislation on whether there can be an employee-employer effort where we can somehow assist with their down payment. I think that's something that had been done years ago on Long Island. I'd love to see that in our region and then broadly as well, because I think they do need assistance and I think that owning a home is an American dream that everyone should have before they're 50. So you know, it's something and when I'm looking at obviously the operations of my company, I am concerned about all the costs that my employees are trying to carry and obviously trying to maintain my workforce.
It is hard to attract people to Long Island. It is hard to attract people to New York because of the cost of living. So I think we need to be creative in the way that we can somehow work with families and government and private businesses to figure out if we can find a solution with all those parties involved.
Johnny Olszewski
I appreciate that. I saw a lot of head shaking, so I'll, in the interest of time, I'll take that as agreement. I'd love to have this committee continue to engage with you and others about, to the extent it's in our purview, finding those kinds of opportunities to do partnerships with business to make home ownership more real. I will just note as I conclude, very proud of the ways in which this Congress passed an overwhelmingly bipartisan housing package, probably the only major item of significance that I've seen be that kind of bipartisan approach that overwhelmingly addressed cost of living and some of those issues without some of the back and forth or the concerns that we've had. There are some provisions, for example, in the reconciliation package that I actually supported, like the no tax on tips, like the no tax on social security, like the depreciation.
There are other elements I think are problematic for Americans and for small business. But this was legislation that was overwhelmingly bipartisan, will have the impact of lowering costs. I think it's the model for our way forward. It's why I really appreciate the partnership I've had with the chairman in passing out some bipartisan legislation from this committee. I echo Representative Tran's sentiments.
We hope to see the Senate move on them. It's not a big yawn, as the president said. I think it's important, it's impactful, and I hope that we can keep working with all of you to keep making progress on those legislation. And again, I thank you for the time. I yield back.
Jimmy Patronis
Gentleman yields back. I got three of my fellow congressmen here. Do you all have about a one-minute question real quick, or?
I think all I want to plug, Mr. Chairman, is a very special opportunity for our guests here, just because the American 250 display is going to be in the Rayburn room, especially for the little guys. At 1:30 to 3:30, we're going to have James Madison's copy of the Federalist. We're going to have the second printing of the Declaration of Independence, and we're going to have an original letter from Thomas Jefferson celebrating the 50th anniversary of our country. So anybody in the room, go stop at the Rayburn room, it's right across from the House chamber.
Congressman Schmidt.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just appreciate the witnesses.
Congressman Jack.
Echo Mr. Schmidt. Thank you. I yield back.
Roger Williams
All right, I'd like to thank our witnesses for their testimony and for appearing before us today. It's been a great hearing. And we always like to say that you see a lot of hearings on TV, some go different directions. This committee here, we really do work hard to be bipartisan and it shows what we get out of here. And I appreciate all the members.
And without objection, members have five legislative days to submit additional materials and written questions from the witnesses to the chair, which will be forwarded to the witnesses. I ask the witnesses to please do that promptly. And if there is no further business, without objection, the committee is adjourned. Thank you.