The Archive

PRESENTED BY

Thanks so much for joining us on Tuesday morning at The Roost or virtually for our final event in The Road to Recovery Series with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). The event focused on the uneven recovery of women small business owners from the Covid recession.

Ernst discussed upcoming opportunities for bipartisanship in the Senate, the National Defense Authorization Act process and why she supports the filibuster. She also predicted that Republicans will take the Senate in 2022 based on President Joe Biden’s job performance thus far.

→ On the prospects of bipartisan legislation passing before 2022:

“There are areas of opportunity where we can work together and one is the National Defense Authorization Act. Of course, I’ve been on the Armed Services Committee, so that’s one. But also another initiative that I have been the Republican lead on is the Violence Against Women Act. And I still believe that we can find a bipartisan solution to modernize the act and get it reauthorized. That has been a heavy lift, but I’ve had some really great partners, between Dianne Feinstein, Amy Klobuchar and Dick Durbin. So I think we can do it, it’s just going to be a tough one.”

→ Why Ernst is unhappy with the NDAA process:

“Sen. Schumer, who is the majority leader in the Senate, is really struggling right now because he’s got a lot of things on his plate. And I don’t know that he’s adequately done the backwards planning in order to get the NDAA onto the floor of the Senate, and voted on, before the end of the year. We only have so many days left until we hit the end of the year mark, and we really need to have this done. It is completed every single year. We do a great job coming together, but we need the floor time and Leader Schumer needs to give us that time to adequately debate, run floor amendments for the NDAA.”

→ Why she supports the filibuster: 

“Even when we were in the majority in the Senate, I supported keeping the filibuster in place, because it forces us to work together. If we don’t have a filibuster, you just have simple majority rule and that’s what we have in the House. I don’t think we need a second House up on the Hill.”

→ Ernst on Republican chances of winning the Senate in 2022:

“I’m going to put it at 60/40. Yeah, we’re going to take the Senate. And I tell you, our single biggest campaign person? President Joe Biden.”

→ Ernst said it was “very unlikely” Senate Republicans would vote to lift the debt limit again later this year.

→ Her frustration with unfair treatment of women in the assigning of federal contracting: 

“I’m sorry, that’s really paltry. 5% of federal contracting to women. 5%? You can’t even meet that? So that is something that we need to push on as Congress. And the sad thing is, and this is what I’ve discovered over the course of the seven years now that I’ve been here in Washington, D.C., is that even if you set the law, trying to get agencies to actually comply with the laws or the regulations that are put upon them. It is outrageous, because they don’t comply, these agencies will do what they do, and then there’s no repercussions to them. I mean, are you going to fine a federal agency? But we have to have more pressure on these agencies to do the right thing.”

Iowa-based small business owners Jenny Steffensmeier and Perlla Deluca also joined us for a fireside chat. The conversation touched on the challenges they’ve faced as women small business owners. 

→ Jenny Steffensmeier, owner, Steffensmeier Welding and Manufacturing (Pilot Grove, Iowa) on how government can help small businesses: 

“Get the workforce back to work. Because it’s such a challenge, it was a challenge before the pandemic.”

→ Perlla Deluca, president, Southeast Constructors (Des Moines, Iowa) shared her thoughts for assisting small business owners: 

“We need to train the small businesses better in order to enter into procurement first, and then access to capital and better funding programs. Those three things can really help small businesses.”

A big thank you to Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices for partnering with us on this event. Watch the full conversation here and catch up on the previous two events with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and CBC Chair Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio).

For those of you who aren’t Punchbowl News subscribers, we hope you’ll join the community. Our free morning newsletter comes out Monday through Friday. You can sign up here. We also invite you to consider our premium community — which includes a midday and evening wrap-up as well as lots of members-only events. 

Thanks again for joining!

Team Punchbowl News

Photographs courtesy of Snow Photography