Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title United States Code, of the Rule Submitted By the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Relating to ``Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Fuel System Integrity of Hydrogen Vehicles; Compressed Hydrogen Storage System Integrity; Incorporation By Reference''
Floor Speech
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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I am here in support of Senator Markey's very important bill that looks at these tariff taxes which, as we all know, apply to consumers--$3,000 for every family in America will be the tariff tax from President Trump's tariffs.
But the focus of Senator Markey's bill--which is so smart--it is on what is happening with small businesses. They are literally roadkill here. They do not have the margins of the big businesses who can go in and have the number of the White House and get a special meeting and get an exemption, which is exactly what has happened.
Or they are not invited to the special secret meeting at JPMorgan with the Treasury Secretary with major investors to find out what is going to happen next with tariffs. They are completely in the dark. Yet they are the backbone of our economy.
I use the example of Beth Benike who is from Minnesota, an Army veteran from southern Minnesota, CEO and founder of a little company called Busy Baby, Minnesota Small Business Person of the Year, just honored at the Small Business Administration about a week ago or 2. And she was celebrating getting her products into major, major retailers. And then these tariffs struck.
Beth's story is the American dream. She came up with an idea based on her own experiences with little kids to help with highchairs. And now she is worried about losing her business and even her house because of these across-the-board tariffs.
We are seeing this over and over again. That is why I am honored to join Senator Markey in his bill to say: If we are not going to help the rest of the world, at least we must exempt small businesses in America from these tariff taxes.
I would prefer for everyone to look at only doing targeted tariffs like we have successfully done in the past under both Democratic and Republican Presidents, instead of this across-the-board business that is basically driving China into the arms of Russia, that is dissing our own allies, like South Korea and Japan and Europe, Canada and Mexico. And the time is here to do something.
Mr. President, at the very least, let us exempt those small businesses who are going to be the first to fold under the weight of these tariff taxes. I thank Mr. Markey for his leadership.
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