WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne (R-TX), Chair of the Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access, held a hearing titled “Investing in America: How Private Equity Empowers Main Street” to examine the role private equity investments play in fueling small business growth.

"Today's hearing about how private equity is playing an increasingly valuable role in supplying capital, financing, and expertise to our small businesses lays the groundwork for Congress to act on removing barriers and regulations to ensure this vital funding source remains strong and growing to help our nation's job creators adapt, expand, and have certainty in their operations. Thank you to Jordan Bastable for coming in from Dallas to serve as a witness today, he provided a unique perspective about his private equity firm and their investment into small businesses in Texas. I look forward to continuing my work with Chairman Williams to develop solutions that better serve America's small businesses and gets the federal government out of the way of their progress,” said Chair Van Duyne.

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Watch the full hearing here.

Below are some key excerpts from today’s hearing:

Chair Van Duyne: “Private equity has proven to be a powerful tool for helping small businesses grow and succeed, historically. So, these investments that we have largely seen concentrated in hubs like Silicon Valley. I think that trend is finally ending. I think in Texas’s 24th District alone, we have 180 private equity-backed businesses. Investors like yourself are looking towards businesses in Texas, and as capital begins to shift toward emerging markets, firms like yours are at the forefront of that transformation. So, can you speak to us about how your firm is helping bring investments into cities like Dallas, and what impact that has had on some of the small businesses that you are working with?” Mr. Bastable: “Yes, absolutely. Thank you for the question. I’d start by saying that when you look at where our company is based—Dallas, St. Louis, and Fargo—they’re not traditional finance hubs. Even in a city like Fargo, people often ask: Why are you in Fargo? ”Chair Van Duyne: “I was going to ask: why are you in Fargo?” Mr. Bastable: “Because there are great opportunities, and it is an underserved market. It’s unbelievable, the number of opportunities that are seeking capital and just do not have access to capital in those parts of the markets. One of the things that is just interesting about the lower, middle market is that it is a relationship industry. They want to work with people who are committed to helping them grow and share the values of that long-term growth. I think it is really important that these businesses and these capital providers continue to be in the markets and locations where they are planning to invest and understand the people and the values of those communities.”

Rep. Bresnahan: “Your work in the manufacturing sector— especially relevant to Pennsylvania’s 8^th Congressional District, where manufacturing plays a vital role in our local economy—I want to revisit a particularly compelling part of your testimony that deserves to be underscored in this conversation. You shared that, thanks to your partnership with private equity, your company is now in a position to onshore more of its manufacturing operations and plans to grow your workforce by over 30 percent in the next 18 months. That kind of investment in American jobs and communities is exactly the type of success story we should be recognizing and supporting here in Congress. With that, Ms. Fields, I’ll turn to you for my first question. You mentioned onshoring your manufacturing operations. Could you expand on why there’s such a priority for your business and what specific challenges you’re encountering in doing so?” Ms. Fields: “Yes, we always want to be an American manufacturer first, and the only reason that we do not manufacture something in America is simply because we cannot compete with what it costs us to produce it here versus what it would cost us to produce it overseas. So, we presently manufacture some products overseas. By having private equity come alongside us, and the things I had previously mentioned about: allowing us to figure out how to get cost out of our operation, become far more efficient, and to understand how to better run a more efficient facility, it allows us to look up products that were previously unattainable to us to do for domestic manufacturing. So, now we can bring those back. Obviously, the potential tariffs also allow us to look at that even more closely today. So, we can now confidently make those investments that we need to make to expand our product line and bring those products back, knowing that we can produce them here in a competitive way that allows us to compete with large companies.”

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