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Kelly Loeffler, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and Rep. Brian Jack (R) dropped by LaGrange on Thursday. 

The administrator and the congressman visited several local businesses along their trip, making stops at Jane Foods (formerly Kimble’s), Solomon’s, Taste of Lemon, and of course, Charlie Joseph’s.

During a stop at the LaGrange-Troup County Chamber of Commerce, Loeffler and Jack held an informal question-and-answer session with local leaders and area small business owners. The attendees were too numerous to mention, but all three mayors, Jim Arrington, Jake Ayers and Steve Tammell, along with Commission Chair Patrick Crews and State Senator Randy Robertson, were present.

The visit was part of the administrator’s tour of small businesses throughout the country. Loeffler made a point to visit her home state of Georgia early on, noting the state is still the best to do business in the nation. Loeffler is a former Georgia State Senator and currently serves in President Donald Trump’s cabinet.

The administrator touted the Trump administration’s efforts to support business, citing tax cuts and deregulation as their primary efforts to help small businesses in Georgia.

“There’s no bigger champion for small businesses than the Trump administration, and the things we’re focused on are expressly aimed at supporting small businesses, including making sure we extend the 2017 tax cuts and Jobs Act to make sure that we don’t have a four and a half trillion dollar tax increase on hard working Americans,” Loeffler said.

“We’re also fighting for fair trade, not just free trade, but fair trade,” Loeffler said. “Deregulation is a critical component of making sure small businesses aren’t disproportionately bearing the brunt of excessive government regulation.”

Jack echoed the administrator’s comments, saying Republicans in Congress aim to make the tax cuts permanent.

“The most important piece of legislation this Congress will address is whether or not we make permanent the Trump tax cuts. I am a forceful advocate to extend those,” Jack said. Every small business, every consumer will feel the impact if we do not extend those Trump tax cuts this year, so that is, without question, the most important piece of legislation we will consider over the coming months.” 

Jack shared a story on the benefits of deregulation shortly after he took office. He said he was 14 weeks in as a congressman when a state senator from Spalding County reached out and asked for regulatory relief. 

“There was a Biden regulation imposed on this company that would have disabled it from manufacturing a very specific type of water heater that’s made in our district, and the company is headquartered in my hometown of Peachtree City. It opened a factory in Spalding County about three or four years ago, and in that factory, they employ 300 of my constituents,” Jack said.

“I was able to use the Congressional Review Act, which is a rarely used congressional tool, to nullify or repeal a Biden regulation,” Jack said. “I got 11 Democrats to cross the aisle and support it in the US House of Representatives, and we had bipartisan support in the US Senate. That passed last week, President Trump will sign it into law later this month.”

When asked about the Trump administration’s recent tariffs, specifically on China and their effect on local businesses like LaGrange’s 2BigFeet, owned by Brandon Eley, Jack backed the president’s efforts to protect American trade interests.

“First and foremost, President Trump says it best. We don’t want to tax our citizens to enrich other countries. We should tax other countries to enrich our citizens,” Jack said.

“Over the last 30 years, LaGrange, Columbus, and most of this congressional district were textile towns, and two events happened over the last 30 years that drastically reshaped and offshored the American textile industry. The passage of NAFTA in 1994 and China’s entry to the WTO in 2001 devastated the American textile industry,” Jack said.

“As we approach trade policy, we’ve got to ensure that we’re protecting America’s interests, but at the same time, we don’t want to pass too many costs along to consumers. I think we want to incentivize companies to reshore their jobs here in America, and want to work with companies that are coming back to America to make the burdens very easy for them to overcome,” Jack said.

Loeffler believes the administration’s tariff policy is working.

“We saw during the pandemic how reliant our supply chains were on China, specifically. And so this realignment of global trade is critical not just to our economic security, but our national security,” Loeffler said.

“The fact that it is hard to find American made nuts, bolts and screws is a warning sign to American strength and growth,” Loeffler said. “[We are] having a hard look at that, taking this time in this period of negotiation. You can see that this tariff policy is working because we have over 100 countries at the negotiating table, and hopefully this process plays out quickly and certainly to the benefit of the American people.”