U.S. Rep. Kelly Morrison Remarks at a Press Conference Announcing New Legislation Exempting Small Businesses from Trump’s Tariffs
WASHINGTON, DC -- Today, U.S. Representative Kelly Morrison (MN-03) joined Rep. Chris Pappas (NH-01) and half a dozen small business owners from across the country to introduce the Small Business Liberation Act, which would exempt the more than 34 million U.S. small businesses from President Trump’s catastrophically high tariffs enacted on April 2, 2025.
Watch the full press conference announcing the introduction of the Small Business Liberation Act HERE:
Read Rep. Morrison’s full remarks introducing the Small Business Liberation Act below.
Good afternoon,
Thanks so much to everyone for joining us today to talk about such a critical issue.
I’m going to be really brief because what we’re doing here today is very simple.
Since the very beginning of Trump’s tariff war, I’ve heard a consistent message from just about every single small business owner I’ve talked to: Trump’s tariffs pose an existential threat to their business.
It’s really not hard to understand why.
The trade war that President Trump launched in April is perhaps the single greatest undermining of American small business we’ve ever seen.
He skyrocketed tariffs so high that small business owners literally cannot get their product from overseas.
He gave zero runway to small businesses so they could think through and explore alternate business plans to adjust to this new tariff landscape.
And his tariff actions continue to be so erratic and unpredictable that these small business owners have no way to plan or make projections for the future.
Just take the latest announcement on China tariffs… there was so much confusion as we were trying to figure out what happened – it’s difficult when our international trade policy is being communicated in unintelligible all caps social media posts on Truth Social.
Since these tariff talks started, small businesses have been ringing the alarm about what this means for them and their bottom line. In addition to the 24/7 job of running a small business, they’re having to scream and shout from the rooftops, do full media campaigns, go on local and national television and radio and try to get the attention of leaders to be spared from this tariff war.
But this Administration is not listening.
Back in April, I raised these small businesses’ concerns with the Commerce Secretary and U.S. Trade Representative and asked them for an exemption for small businesses.
No response.
Just last week, I questioned the head of the Small Business Administration at a House Small Business Committee hearing.
I asked her one simple question: Would you support a tariff exemption for small businesses?
She refused to do so.
This Administration has made clear they serve and listen to only one kind of business: whoever has enough resources to pay off the President.
Well, small businesses don’t have millions of dollars to personally lobby the President – but they are the backbone of our economy and they deserve a level playing field. They employ 62 million people in the United States.
So while this Administration ignores the small business community – we decided to take action in Congress.
And let’s not forget: Article 1 of the Constitution gives Congress the authority to levy tariffs.
This tariff war is an egregious overreach of executive power. The President has taken tariff authority away from Congress.
And the majority has allowed him to do it.
This should not be a partisan issue. This is simply existential for American’s 34 million small businesses.
So that’s why we’re taking action today.
I’m proud to introduce the Small Business Liberation Act with Congressman Chris Pappas to exempt America’s small businesses from President Trump’s tariffs.
The good news is that this bill has already been introduced in the Senate.
We have the exact same bill text here in the House, so if we can get the majority leaders to take up this bill, we could pass it today.
And that’s what we’re calling on the Republican majority to do.
We’ve got the bill – we’ve got it in both chambers – bring it to the floor today.
The bill has already been endorsed by more than 140 small business owners across the country and we’re so grateful to have some of them with us today.
And they are truly the embodiment of the American dream. They are innovators. They are job creators. They are economic drivers. They are among the hardest workers you can find.
But because of this Administration’s decisions, everything they’ve worked so hard to build is being taken away from them.
It’s unacceptable. But we’re going to do everything we can to stop that from happening.
So with that, I’ll turn it over to my co-lead on this bill, Congressman Pappas.
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