PEORIA, Ill. – A member of the Trump administration made a visit to Peoria on Wednesday to promote a new initiative aimed at helping manufacturers.
Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler visited Rheo Engineering to promote the Made in American Manufacturing Initiative. She was joined by Congressman Darin LaHood (R-Dunlap) and Rheo CEO Robert Herrmann.
The goal of the initiative, launched last week, is to provide assistance in a variety of ways to help small manufacturing businesses be more competitive.
“What I learned is that red tape is strangling our manufacturers, that we need to have a trained and skilled workforce, we need to invest in the education of our workers to ensure that they’re coming into manufacturing. And we’re learning that President Trump’s trade policies are already working,” Loeffler said.
Some of the ways the program is aiding businesses is providing capital funding, cutting regulations, and workforce development training programs to help find the workers needed.
Loeffler says President Trump’s tariff policies can help provide economic security and bring overseas jobs back to America, creating less dependency on supply chains.
Loeffler also participated in a roundtable discussion with manufacturing business leaders, before a tour of the Rheo facility. Rheo CEO Robert Herrmann says the initiative can help his business in numerous ways.
“As a small business, there’s challenges with building out some of the talent and the need, the leadership, all of those issues around all those requirements to do business in America, and as a small business,” Herrmann said. “We can’t always afford those investments. So the Small Business Administration has a good eye on that need.”
Herrmann says it can give businesses like his a leg up in a global marketplace.
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