Small Business Majority Policy Action Network

On March 20, Small Business Majority and 19 state and national business organizations sent a letter to President Trump and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought in strong opposition to the March 14 executive order, Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, which attempts to dismantle several agencies including the Community Development Financial Institution (Fund) and the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA).

We’re deeply worried about the future of anti-monopoly and fair competition enforcement at the Federal Trade Commission following President Trump’s decision to fire Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. Commissioners Slaughter and Bedoya have been champions for small businesses, supporting a ban on non-compete agreements, working to rein in big tech companies that harm small firms and advocating for Robinson-Patman Act enforcement to stop price discrimination.

Congress put small businesses in an impossible position. On one hand, a government shutdown would be bad for small firms, depriving them of access to critical resources at a time when they are already facing enormous uncertainty due to the Trump administration’s unpredictable approach to tariffs, threats of mass deportations of immigrants, and reckless approach to government staffing and funding cuts. On the other hand, the continuing resolution (CR) that would keep the federal government operating through September falls far short of meeting the needs of our nation’s growing small business community.

New tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports will put small businesses and family farmers at a competitive disadvantage. We’ve heard from a number of small business owners who said that any cost increases can be devastating for businesses already operating on thin margins. And large tariffs like 25% would mean most small businesses have no choice but to pass their costs on to customers. Larger businesses, however, are more likely to have flexibility to absorb increased overhead, keeping prices lower and undercutting their smaller competition. At a time when inflation was already spiking, even consumers who may prefer to shop small are more likely to buy big if there is a significant price difference for similar products. We’ve also heard from small business owners who would be happy to purchase products made in the United States if they could; the reality is that they simply cannot either because those products are too expensive or because the industries that supply what they need relocated offshore decades ago.