Jan. 29 (UPI) — Former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler on Wednesday testified before the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee as President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Small Business Administration.
In her opening statement, Loeffler described her Midwestern upbringing as an asset.
“My wonderful parents, Don and Lynda, didn’t have degrees, but they had faith and grit,” she said about living in central Illinois. “They worked relentlessly to sustain our farm and small trucking company — risking everything to provide for us while navigating volatile commodity markets and complex regulations and facing countless day-to-day challenges.
“It’s where my Midwestern work ethic was ingrained, working in our soybean fields and waiting tables at local restaurants — preparing me for a lifetime of starting and growing businesses,” she continued. “I became the first in my family to graduate college and later earned my MBA.”
The venture capitalist has a net worth of about $1 billion. She also has worked at major corporations that include Toyota Motor Sales USA, Citigroup and William Blair. And for 10 years, she also co-owned the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.
If confirmed by the Senate, Loeffler has pledged to donate her annual salary of $207,500 to charity.
The Republican served as a Georgia senator from Jan. 6, 2020, to Jan. 20, 2021. Gov. Brian Kemp named her to fill the seat vacated by retired GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson. She was defeated by Raphael Warnock, a Democrat.
She oversaw Trump’s second inaugural committee.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who heads the committee, said in her opening remarks: “Throughout your distinguished career, you’ve risen through the ranks at multiple companies due to your determination and grit, and you have started many successful businesses yourself. Most importantly, you understand what it means to be overrun by Washington’s bureaucratic overreach and that government must instead get out of businesses’ way so they can thrive,”
Loeffler said she wants to “restore integrity” to disaster relief efforts at the SBA, which doles out low-interest loans to businesses of all sizes, homeowners, renters and private nonprofit organizations.
“I think Americans were stunned by the polarization of hurricane response under FEMA where they refused to go to homes with Trump supporting signs in their yards,” she said. “Americans want to see an end to that. We should not be politicizing disaster response. I think that’s something we have to restore confidence in.”
A Federal Emergency Management Agency official was removed after directing disaster relief workers to skip homes “advertising” support for President-elect Trump after the devastating hurricanes in Florida after Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
She defended Trump’s federal funding freeze, which was rescinded Wednesday.
“The money was certainly — with regard to the agencies — discretionary in many cases. But I fully agree with President Trump’s decision to stop wasteful spending,” Loeffler said. “He specifically, and the OMB (Office of Management and Budget), called out programs related to illegal DEI programs and programs that effectively linked to the Green New Deal that picks winners and losers, so I think Americans breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the waste, fraud and abuse is going to get out of this government.”
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., asked her whether she would follow the president’s directives if they were “illegal or unconstitutional” in her role as SBA administrator.
“The president is not going to ask me to do that,” Loeffler shot back. “I’m not going to create a hypothetical situation here. I will faithfully uphold the law and President Trump is fighting for Americans.”
Loeffler said she backs Trump’s order to have workers return to the office instead of working remotely.
“We are gonna get this agency back to work,” Loeffler said. “We are gonna make sure we have people committed to the success of small businesses.”
