KELLY LOEFFLER: Here’s What The Schumer Shutdown Means For Main Street

The federal government is shut down. And thanks to Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats, so is access to capital on Main Street.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has been forced to freeze its rapidly growing flagship loan guarantee programs that fund 320 small businesses every day. Thousands of entrepreneurs across America who were set to close on loans to start and expand their operations are now in limbo. Every day this shutdown continues, hundreds of local businesses will be starved of an estimated $170 million in SBA funding, cutting off vital capital that would have supported hiring, growth, and investment – and that would have cost taxpayers nothing, since the agency’s 7(a) and 504 loan programs are self-funding.

The shutdown comes just as Main Street was recovering from 40-year-high inflation and $1.9 trillion in regulatory expansion that ballooned under the Biden Administration. Under President Donald Trump, the SBA has backed a record 84,000 small business loans totaling about $45 billion in FY25  – the most ever approved by the agency in its 72 year history. (RELATED: Democrat Says Shutdown ‘A Real Problem’ Minutes After Voting To Keep Government Closed)

Job creators are taking on capital at record rates for one reason: they are optimistic for their future prospects. Polling by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce confirms that small business confidence is at its highest level since 2017. And every other economic indicator – from 3.8% GDP in Q2, to rising wages and job creation – affirms not only that our economy is strong, but that the growth is led by small businesses, which represent 99% of all businesses in America.

I’ve seen that optimism firsthand as I’ve traveled across the country. President Trump’s pro-growth economic agenda – including historic working family tax cuts, fair trade, and deregulation – is giving job creators certainty. Under this Administration, whether you’re a leading-edge innovator or mom and pop shop, opportunity is back. Factory owners are onshoring and producing again. Main Street mainstays are hiring again. Small businesses finally have the confidence to grow.

But the SBA capital fueling that momentum has come to a screeching halt thanks to Senate Democrats. The caucus refuses to support H.R. 5371 – a clean continuing resolution that Senate Republicans have proposed to fund Washington. Instead, they are insisting on S. 2882, which includes an additional $1.5 trillion in spending that will go toward, among other things, free health benefits for illegal aliens.

With a clean funding bill, President Trump and the SBA are fighting to reopen the government. Over and over again, Senator Schumer and his caucus refuse to join us in that fight.

Small businesses employ nearly half of America’s private sector workforce, create two out of every three new jobs, and generate nearly half of GDP. During the last shutdown, when the SBA was unable to deliver an estimated $2 billion in loans, they lost leases, contracts expired, and hiring plans were shelved. It took months for many entrepreneurs, and our entire economy, to recover. By refusing to support H.R. 5371, Democrats have chosen to repeat history – cutting off access to vital capital for entrepreneurs across America.

The SBA is ready to continue delivering historic results for job creators. But until Senate Democrats agree to pass a clean funding bill, neither our employees – nor those on Main Street – can get back to work.

Kelly Loeffler is the administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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