The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in a legal challenge to President Donald Trump's tariffs. The hearing comes as the tariffs take a heavy toll on many small businesses across Texas.
More than 230 Texas-based small business owners traveled to Washington D.C. last week as part of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Summit to tell Texas lawmakers about how uncertainty tied to the tariffs and the ongoing federal government shutdown is driving up their costs of doing business.
Amber Ferrell-Steele is the owner and founder of Timeless Spirits and Drinks, based in Iowa Colony, south of Houston. Much of her business depends on not only the export of vodka and rum, but on the import of liquids and dry goods. She said the tariffs have driven up the costs of glass and packaging that go into her products by between 14% and 20%.
"It’s been really all over the place, and kind of one of those impossible pieces to control as far as budgeting goes," Ferrell-Steele said, "because even if a tariff has not been put on a particular good, the doom and gloom of an impending tariff coming has also caused the company to go ahead and preemptively raise the price."
Ferrell-Steele said the problem is compounded by the freeze on new federal small business loan activity during the government shutdown, cutting access to capital both for her and her customers.
"I actually have a customer who bought land from us, and he was going through the SBA [U.S. Small Business Administration], but they’re unable to close their SBA loan because the government shut down," Ferrell-Steele said.
Brandi Harleaux tells a similar story. Harleaux is the CEO and second-generation owner of Houston-based South Post Oak Recycling Center. Her metal recycling business depends on the ability to invest in heavy machinery needed to process and package metals to sell to mills and foundries.
"Believe it or not, even if the equipment is made here — and some of it is made outside of the country — the parts that’s needed to maintain it and keep this million-dollar equipment is not all made here locally," Harleaux said. "And so now we’re looking at increased costs to ship it here, for that material to be brought here, so that we can still manufacture here."
Harleaux said her business is also hurting from the rising cost of health insurance tied to the government shutdown.
"As an employer, I want to be able to provide affordable health care to my team and the people that we’re hiring, and right now, it’s so expensive," Harleaux said. "I’d ... like to be able to offer strong health care plans that were not so costly that they’d become an impediment for me as a business owner."
Both Harleaux and Ferrell-Steele expressed frustration that lawmakers' rhetoric, which frequently praises small businesses as the backbone of the U.S. economy, often does not match their actions.
"If they’re going to continue to say that small businesses are the framework and the fabric of our country," Ferrell-Steele said, "well then you’ve got to help put that fabric together, and you've really got to sew it up.”