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Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I am here to speak in opposition to the confirmation of Senator Kelly Loeffler to serve as Administrator of the Small Business Administration.

I am concerned for the more than 722,000 small businesses that call Massachusetts home and that last year relied on $708 million in loans from the Small Business Administration.

I am concerned because of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who have sent a clear message: They are here to illegally cut off funding for critical government Agencies and services. They are here to make government work for billionaires but at the expense of working-class people, and they are filling their Cabinet with people who are going to carry out that illegal bidding.

As I stand here today, DOGE operatives continue to work under the cover of darkness, including at the Small Business Administration. The American people want answers. Is the private information of families and businesses and individuals safe at the SBA? Will an entrepreneur looking to open their beauty salon be looking to close on an SBA loan and get their money on schedule? Can government contractors, many of whom are veterans, continue providing critical services while getting paid on time?

Lawmakers and American families alike are scrambling to figure out whether the government is open for business. Small business owners are wondering what will come from the illegal access to their private data by Musk's minions. These are just small business people across the country who have handed over the financial secrets of their families, and there is no guarantee that all of those secrets of their families are being protected right now. They are small business people. We have 7 million people in Massachusetts and 722,000 small businesses.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump continues to attack DEI--diversity, equity, and inclusion--when, in reality, the administration is carrying out a different kind of DEI--``defending Elon's interests.''

So today, I stand in opposition to the confirmation of Kelly Loeffler because of this effort which is going to be throwing us into a constitutional crisis through their illegal actions. I fear that, as Administrator, Senator Loeffler will put the interests--at the command of Donald Trump and Elon Musk--of the more than 34 million small businesses second and of Elon and billionaire interests first.

In a moment when our democracy is under threat, I expect a clearer commitment to the rule of law. So far, Senator Loeffler has offered an unapologetic defense of Trump's Executive orders, which attempt to supersede the law of the land, and has supported pardons for the January 6 insurrectionists.

Taxpayers need to ensure they have an environment which is fair and impartial at the SBA. Instead, Senator Loeffler has, in the past, basically bragged that she is more conservative even than Attila the Hun.

I need to make sure that this environment that is being created is one which is going to be hospitable to small businesses, because they need to ensure that there is an Administrator who will act ethically and for the benefit of America's entrepreneurs. Small businesses need an Administrator who will help them compete and innovate. They do not need an Administrator who is only listening to the White House's, Trump's, and Elon Musk's orders.

To conclude, under the Biden administration, we saw a record number of new small businesses, but just because they were recovering, it doesn't mean they weren't hurting.

So to all of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, we have to work together to uplift our entrepreneurs and promote a ruthless Darwinian marketplace that would bring a smile to Adam Smith. That is my goal. The vibrancy of our communities depends on us ensuring small business can compete, expand, and create jobs.

By crippling government from within, Trump is trying to damage the critical services that help working families put food on the table. So I urge a ``no'' vote on the confirmation of Senator Loeffler to serve as Administrator of the Small Business Administration.

Unfortunately, by now, we are able to look back and see the totality across the EPA, across the NIH, across the President's call for the dismantlement of the Department of Education as to what the real story line is here as the Trump administration and the DOGE apparatchiks move into Agency after Agency and are in the Small Business Administration right now.

So my goal is to try to protect that SBA that we have all known on a bipartisan basis for generations--to just protect it from this storm of partisanship that is taking over our country, and on that basis, I recommend a ``no'' vote.

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