{"id":136773,"date":"2026-03-12T22:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/136773\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T22:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:12:07","slug":"bresnahan-meuser-tour-dickson-city-pipeline-business-with-sba-administrator-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/136773\/","title":{"rendered":"Bresnahan, Meuser tour Dickson City pipeline business with SBA administrator"},"content":{"rendered":"

DICKSON CITY \u2014 The owner of a borough pipeline business touted the Trump administration\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Those Kriger Pipeline employees benefit from provisions of Trump\u2019s Working Families Tax Cuts legislation, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including provisions allowing limited income tax deductions on overtime pay<\/a>, Butch Kriger told SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler and Republican U.S. Reps. Rob Bresnahan and Dan Meuser during the tour.<\/p>\n

He also endorsed the administration\u2019s deregulatory efforts and friendlier approach to natural gas development, with Loeffler noting \u201cenergy dominance\u201d 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 \u201chelping lay natural gas pipeline for the growth and expansion of our energy dominance in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AdministratorAdministrator 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)<\/p>\n

But Kriger, whose company installs and maintains both natural gas and water pipelines, also highlighted hiring challenges, noting the difficulty he\u2019s experienced hiring CDL drivers and filling other positions. A post on the business\u2019 Facebook page earlier this month advertised immediate full-time job opportunities for experienced gas and water fitters, utility and hydro vac operators and laborers.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cmaking sure the curriculum \u2026 matches what the employer actually will need when that person is ready to enter the workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next generation of Kriger (Pipeline) is in second grade, and we need to be able to reach those students at that pivotal time,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are jobs that are never going to be replaced by artificial intelligence. \u2026 And the need for skilled labor for the anticipation of development in Northeastern Pennsylvania is somewhere between eight-and-twelve thousand jobs. We don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"U.S.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)<\/p>\n

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\u2019re currently the only counties in the state without a dedicated career and technical center, he said, noting the center will produce \u201cjob-ready personnel\u201d for the region.<\/p>\n

Loeffler said \u201cskilled workforce now has become a top issue for small businesses\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut look, what\u2019s holding them back is the fact that there is about 7 million open jobs in this country,\u201d she said. \u201cA 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019ve 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,\u201d Loeffler continued. \u201cThey create two out of every three new jobs. And that\u2019s why locally, you see here, these businesses are the heartbeat of the community because they\u2019re not just hiring, but they\u2019re training and then they\u2019re creating the economic engine that builds infrastructure and brings community and culture locally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loeffler and the congressmen also discussed deregulation, with the former noting her agency \u201chas been tasked to work across the government to deregulate where regulation disproportionately disadvantages small businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of downstream impact on businesses like Kriger\u2019s, Loeffler said environmental regulations that put \u201conerous requirements on emissions\u201d make equipment more expensive. She appeared to specifically reference the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s recently rescinded 2009 endangerment finding<\/a>, a scientific conclusion that served as \u201cthe central basis for regulating planet-warming emissions\u201d from vehicles and other sources, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo not only does it raise the cost of his equipment, it raises the interest cost because he\u2019s paying more for it,\u201d Loeffler said, standing in front of a Kriger Pipeline-branded small wheel loader. \u201cIt raises the complexity of the repairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Government and private business \u201cshouldn\u2019t be adversaries,\u201d Bresnahan said in the context of regulation more broadly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should be working in partnership,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously we\u2019re not looking to bypass or cut out any fundamental regulation that protects any of our constituents, but at the same time it shouldn\u2019t 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?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"U.S.U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser takes a tour through Kriger Pipeline in Dickson City Thursday, March 12, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n

Lauding Kriger\u2019s business, Meuser also praised Loeffler.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Kelly Loeffler goes to work, it\u2019s about reducing burdens on you,\u201d he told Kriger. \u201cBefore I called it blue tape, because a lot of it is. Deregulation, competitive tax rates and a positive approach to your business growth, that\u2019s pretty much what we\u2019re about.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DICKSON CITY \u2014 The owner of a borough pipeline business touted the Trump administration\u2019s policies and posture Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1099,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,729],"class_list":["post-136773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-dickson-city","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}