Made in America Manufacturing Finance Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak as we take up a set of five bipartisan bills that will expand services available to our country's 36 million small businesses.

These businesses are crucial to our economy and national security, creating two-thirds of all new jobs, employing half the private-sector workforce, and generating almost half of our Nation's economic activity.

Despite forming the bedrock of our local communities, small businesses are increasingly feeling uncertain about the future of the country. The small business landscape is littered with obstacles like finding qualified workers, dealing with supply chain disruption as they adjust to the President's tariff regime, and adopting new technologies in order to stay competitive. These economic headwinds make SBA services more important than ever.

The bills before us today reflect the monthslong, bipartisan effort to strengthen the services offered by the SBA and bolster the support for small businesses across the country. These five bills were negotiated in good faith and in the spirit of collaboration.

Together, they help expand access to capital for businesses central to our national security, expand the reach of the SBA's Office of Rural Affairs, hold fraudsters accountable for exploiting the pandemic relief programs, and modernize the SBA's IT infrastructure.

These bills are quite simply common sense and would meaningfully improve SBA services for small businesses across the country. I am proud to support them, and I thank my colleagues for the bipartisan effort.

Mr. Speaker, turning to the first bill, I rise today for H.R. 3174, the Made in America Manufacturing Finance Act.

Small manufacturers account for more than 98 percent of U.S. manufacturing firms and employ 4.8 million Americans. They play a critical role in regional economies and in maintaining supply chain resilience.

There is no doubt that reshoring manufacturing is a top priority. We all lived through the pandemic and saw the downsides of streamlined just-in-time supply chains. When it comes to industries critical to our economic and national security, such as pharmaceuticals and weapons, ensuring the viability of domestic supply chains is paramount.

Let's all be honest, as a result of the crushing use of tariffs imposed unilaterally by the President, small businesses are clamoring for options in their supply chains that avoid massive and ever-changing taxes at points of entry, but a renewed economic focus on making things in the U.S. cannot happen at the snap of a finger.

It takes large investments and longtime horizons. This bill is a way to approach filling the gaps in manufacturing financing. It raises the loan limits for the SBA 7(a) and 504/CDC loan program from $5 million to $10 million for small manufacturers.

In fact, helping small firms with the upfront capital investment is one of the main goals of the 504/CDC program, and there is broad support for increasing the loan limits in particular. Whether this is a prudent use of the 7(a) program is a conversation that is still up for debate, and one I look forward to continuing to work through with our Senate counterparts.

Mr. Speaker, I support the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CISNEROS. Mr. Speaker, I will close by thanking the chairman for his commitment to working on behalf of small businesses to open up avenues of financing for small businesses hoping to contribute to the reshoring of manufacturing.

Mr. Speaker, I support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source