LINK: Trump’s First 100 Days: Turning Main Street into Pain Street

Washington (April 30, 2025) - Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee Ranking Member Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) today released “Trump’s First 100 Days: Turning Main Street into Pain Street,” which lists 100 ways the Trump administration has upended the livelihoods of small business owners and risked the death of millions of small businesses across the country – all while padding their own pockets and leaving working families to foot the bill.

Over the first 100 days, Trump, Elon Musk, Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler, and the Trump administration have been putting big billionaires over small businesses; launched a global and domestic trade war; made callous cuts and closures; and stoked cruelty and corruption across the Small Business Administration (SBA) and numerous other agencies. Key ways the Administration has caused devastating economic pain and created massive uncertainty for small businesses include:

1. Forced through radical economic policies that have led to one of the steepest declines in consumer confidence ratings on record.
2. Announced layoffs of 43 percent of SBA’s workforce, drastically reducing the agency’s ability to help small business owners.
3. Illegally fired the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Inspector General, leaving the agency without an independent watchdog.
4. Allowed DOGE to access sensitive borrower information, putting the safety and security of small business owners’ personal data in jeopardy.
5. Created tariff exemptions for billion-dollar tech companies, giving big businesses and well-connected billionaires a leg up while leaving small businesses to bear the brunt of the Administration’s trade policies.
6. Raised prices at mom and pop children’s retail stores, driving up prices for items such as strollers and car seats.
7. Hiked fees lenders are allowed to charge small businesses for SBA loans, adding thousands of dollars in extra costs for small-business borrowers.
8. Eliminated the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), cutting a lifeline for many minority entrepreneurs seeking to start and grow their businesses.
9. Sent the federal government’s $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio to SBA, overwhelming the agency and leaving student loan borrowers confused and worried.
10. Implemented draconian anti-immigrant policies that threaten small businesses that depend on immigrant employees.

Last week, Ranking Member Markey wrote to SBA Administrator Loeffler, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, calling on them to exempt U.S. small businesses from the reckless Trump tariffs, and afford them the same relief that the Administration is giving billion-dollar tech giants such as Apple and Google.

Previously in April 2025, Ranking Member Markey released a report, “The Trump Tariffs: A Small Business Crisis,” which details the disastrous impacts of Trump’s tariff policies on small businesses across the country. Also in April 2025, Ranking Member Markey, along with Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and all Democrats on the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee wrote to Administrator Loeffler, urging her to take immediate action to address the impacts of Trump’s reckless tariff policies on small businesses.

Over the next 100 days and beyond, Ranking Member Markey will continue to fight back against the Trump administration’s cruel and chaotic small business agenda.