DICKSON CITY — The owner of a borough pipeline business touted the Trump administration’s policies and posture Thursday as the head of the U.S. Small Business Administration and two local congressmen toured his Enterprise Street operation and met employees.
Those Kriger Pipeline employees benefit from provisions of Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts legislation, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including provisions allowing limited income tax deductions on overtime pay, Butch Kriger told SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler and Republican U.S. Reps. Rob Bresnahan and Dan Meuser during the tour.
He also endorsed the administration’s deregulatory efforts and friendlier approach to natural gas development, with Loeffler noting “energy dominance” is at the heart of the Trump agenda. She, Kriger and the congressmen fielded questions from the media in the shadow of equipment that Loeffler said is “helping lay natural gas pipeline for the growth and expansion of our energy dominance in America.”
Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration Kelly Loeffler, center, U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, far left, U.S. Rob Bresnahan, second from right, get a tour of Kriger Pipeline in Dickson City by Kriger Pipeline Owner and President Butch Kriger and son Joel Kriger Thursday, March 12, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
But Kriger, whose company installs and maintains both natural gas and water pipelines, also highlighted hiring challenges, noting the difficulty he’s experienced hiring CDL drivers and filling other positions. A post on the business’ Facebook page earlier this month advertised immediate full-time job opportunities for experienced gas and water fitters, utility and hydro vac operators and laborers.
Bresnahan, R-8, Dallas Twp., said the situation underscores the importance of investments in career and technical education, exposing students to relevant curricula earlier on and “making sure the curriculum … matches what the employer actually will need when that person is ready to enter the workforce.”
“The next generation of Kriger (Pipeline) is in second grade, and we need to be able to reach those students at that pivotal time,” he said. “These are jobs that are never going to be replaced by artificial intelligence. … And the need for skilled labor for the anticipation of development in Northeastern Pennsylvania is somewhere between eight-and-twelve thousand jobs. We don’t have that within our current workforce, so you need to be identifying that next generation of workforce in the second, third, fourth and fifth grade.”
U.S. Rob Bresnahan studies an elbow for a gas pipe at Kriger Pipeline in Dickson City Thursday, March 12, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Bresnahan also noted $3 million in federal funding he recently announced for the construction of a career and technical center that will serve Pike and Wayne County students. They’re currently the only counties in the state without a dedicated career and technical center, he said, noting the center will produce “job-ready personnel” for the region.
Loeffler said “skilled workforce now has become a top issue for small businesses” while pointing to metrics showing high small business confidence, something she attributed to the Working Families Tax Cuts legislation Bresnahan and Meuser, R-9, Jackson Twp., backed last year.
“But look, what’s holding them back is the fact that there is about 7 million open jobs in this country,” she said. “A third of small businesses, up to a half at any given point, have open jobs. Many have just quit trying to fill (them), but many have been very innovative and created apprenticeship programs.”
“That’s why we’ve partnered with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Labor to work through apprentice-style programs to really target them toward small businesses, because small businesses are our primary job creators in America,” Loeffler continued. “They create two out of every three new jobs. And that’s why locally, you see here, these businesses are the heartbeat of the community because they’re not just hiring, but they’re training and then they’re creating the economic engine that builds infrastructure and brings community and culture locally.”
Loeffler and the congressmen also discussed deregulation, with the former noting her agency “has been tasked to work across the government to deregulate where regulation disproportionately disadvantages small businesses.”
In terms of downstream impact on businesses like Kriger’s, Loeffler said environmental regulations that put “onerous requirements on emissions” make equipment more expensive. She appeared to specifically reference the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recently rescinded 2009 endangerment finding, a scientific conclusion that served as “the central basis for regulating planet-warming emissions” from vehicles and other sources, according to the Associated Press.
“So not only does it raise the cost of his equipment, it raises the interest cost because he’s paying more for it,” Loeffler said, standing in front of a Kriger Pipeline-branded small wheel loader. “It raises the complexity of the repairs.”
Government and private business “shouldn’t be adversaries,” Bresnahan said in the context of regulation more broadly.
“They should be working in partnership,” he said. “Obviously we’re not looking to bypass or cut out any fundamental regulation that protects any of our constituents, but at the same time it shouldn’t take seven years to be able to construct a new bridge because of the environmental process and the engineering process. Why not overlay them on top of one another so you can get a shovel into the ground faster?”
U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser takes a tour through Kriger Pipeline in Dickson City Thursday, March 12, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Lauding Kriger’s business, Meuser also praised Loeffler.
“When Kelly Loeffler goes to work, it’s about reducing burdens on you,” he told Kriger. “Before I called it blue tape, because a lot of it is. Deregulation, competitive tax rates and a positive approach to your business growth, that’s pretty much what we’re about.”
Bresnahan faces a midterm election challenge in the 8th Congressional District from Democratic Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti. In the 9th Congressional District, Meuser is poised to face Democrat Rachel Wallace of Schuylkill County in November.