A group of local people is heading to Washington, D.C., to attend the State of the Union address happening Tuesday night.

Rochester-area business owner Ben Pearson and parent Eva Wood will be going as guests of U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Pearson, founder and CEO of Eisco LLC., which makes science kits and other products for classrooms across America, says he has seen President Donald Trump’s tariffs devastate his business with increased costs.

“So what happens is that we have to pay a tariff before we ever touch the goods. That came to be, to date, a million-dollar expense that we had not budgeted for, and it has really made us, as a small business, suffer,” said Pearson. “We’ve had a 20% reduction in staff that we weren’t expecting to have, and we had a negative fourth quarter because of the tariffs. To offset that, we had to raise our pricing, which was awfully tough for teachers and researchers who already have tough budgets, and they could then buy less. So it’s a pretty negative self-fulfilling cycle that these tariffs have caused. For a small business owner, it feels like theft.”

Last week, the Supreme Court struck down many of Trump’s far-reaching tariffs in a 6-3 decision. However, hours later, the president announced he had signed an executive order imposing 10% global import duties through another statute. Businesses now face a new wave of uncertainty following the ruling.

Eva Wood is a mother who says she relied on the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits to afford health care and is now facing massive increases of thousands more dollars every year for her family after the Republican-controlled Congress allowed the ACA tax credits to expire.

Schumer says they should not be forced to choose between their medication and mortgage, or be hit with a $1 million gut punch to their bottom line because of the tariffs. He says Trump needs to see how his policies are impacting people like Pearson and Wood.

Other New Yorkers who will be attending the State of the Union include Wayne County Sheriff Robert Milby, who is the guest of U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney, and Angelica Perez-Delgado, president of the Ibero-American Action League. She is the guest of Rep. Joe Morelle.