Kelly Loeffler was confirmed on Wednesday by the Senate on a near-party-line vote of 52-to-46 to head the Small Business Administration.
Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada was the only Democrat to vote in favor of the nominee, while the two nominal independents who caucus with Democrats opposed Loeffler. All the Republican senators present voted for her. Republican Sens. Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Jerry Moran of Kansas didn’t vote.
Loeffler’s confirmation adds to a record pace of Cabinet confirmations for President Donald Trump’s picks, thanks to the Senate GOP leadership. After stalling by Senate Democrats, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., promised that the Senate would stay in session on evenings and weekends if it had to in order to confirm Trump’s Cabinet nominees.
“While Senate Republicans are confirming President Trump’s Cabinet faster than the previous three administrations, the only things Democrats are committed to are obstruction and delay. We’re working as quickly as possible to get President Trump’s full team in place so we can secure our borders, bolster national security, and unleash American energy,” Thune said in a statement to The Daily Signal.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., noted in a floor speech the record pace of the Cabinet confirmations. “By the end of today, we will have confirmed 18 of President Trump’s nominees. These nominees are bold and well-qualified. That is more nominees than President [Barack] Obama had in 2009. It is more than President [Joe] Biden had in 2021,” Barrasso said.
Loeffler is a former U.S. senator who represented Georgia for a little more than a year from 2020 to 2021, after being appointed by the state’s governor to temporarily fill a vacancy.
Loeffler, who holds an MBA, worked for nearly three decades in the automotive and financial services industries, including at Citibank. She was also CEO of Bakkt, a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange, a Fortune 500 company.
After losing the 2020 Georgia special election to Raphael Warnock, Loeffler remained committed to political advocacy and served as a co-chair of Trump’s inauguration committee alongside Steve Witkoff, who now serves as a special envoy for Trump.
Serving in the halls of power is a long way away from the farm Loeffler grew up on in rural Illinois, where she attended public school and state university.
As SBA administrator, Loeffler will be in charge of an agency that seeks to assist in developing American business. On the capital side, the SBA guarantees a portion of loans given out to small businesses in order to reduce the risk for the lenders and facilitate economic development that would not otherwise happen.
The SBA also works to put at least 23% of all prime contracts awarded by the federal government into the hands of small businesses. In 2021, that translated to more than $154 billion in small business federal government contracts. The SBA also provides business counseling services, usually free, to more than 1 million small business owners each year.
In an era of government reform and cost-cutting by the Department of Government Efficiency, Loeffler may face tough questions about the agency. The SBA has been criticized in the past for costing taxpayers billions in what has been characterized as corporate welfare for big banks.
The Senate also still has to vote on Trump’s picks to lead the Labor Department and the Department of Education, as well as the Cabinet-level positions of U.S. trade representative and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
This article was originally published at www.dailysignal.com
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