{"id":146223,"date":"2026-03-23T19:36:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T19:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/146223\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T19:36:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T19:36:58","slug":"kelly-loeffler-visits-lehigh-valley-to-highlight-small-business-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/146223\/","title":{"rendered":"Kelly Loeffler visits Lehigh Valley to highlight small-business success"},"content":{"rendered":"

To wind up her visit to the Lehigh Valley on Monday, U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler was given a lesson on how to make a Biaggio\u2019s pizza.<\/p>\n

Joined by Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in the kitchen, Loeffler watched pizza maker John Duka pull together a pie as the lunchtime rush was beginning at Biaggio\u2019s Pizzeria & Family Restaurant in South Whitehall Township.<\/p>\n

Loeffler was in the Valley to promote the results of the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill Act\u201d and its effects on small businesses. Before coming to Biaggio\u2019s, she visited Lehigh Valley Plastics in Bethlehem and Polymer Contours in Allentown.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump has solved the tax and the regulatory challenges in one year,\u201d Loeffler said. \u201cNow we\u2019re focused on hiring, and that\u2019s an incredible blue-collar boom for places like Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its February survey of small businesses, the National Federation of Independent Business found that owners are optimistic about higher sales and profits in upcoming months. But labor was a concern, as the NFIB found that 33% of owners reported job openings they could not fill.<\/p>\n

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

U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, right, and U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie visit Biaggio Pizzeria & Family Restaurant in South Whitehall Township on Monday, March 23. (Evan Jones\/The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

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

U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler visits Biaggio Pizzeria & Family Restaurant in South Whitehall Township on Monday, March 23. (Evan Jones\/The Morning Call).\n<\/p>\n

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

U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, right, and U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie visit Biaggio Pizzeria & Family Restaurant in South Whitehall Township on Monday, March 23. (Evan Jones\/The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 3<\/p>\n

U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, right, and U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie visit Biaggio Pizzeria & Family Restaurant in South Whitehall Township on Monday, March 23. (Evan Jones\/The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSmall businesses are spring-loaded to invest, thanks to the One Big, Beautiful Bill,\u201d Loeffler said. \u201cThe common thread that we see everywhere we go is the skilled workforce. We need more workers. We are ready to hire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Georgette Ruffino, who was running the restaurant while husband Joe was out of town, said business has been good lately.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings are moving up,\u201d she said. \u201c[Business is] much better than the past few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

She mentioned that she was especially grateful for the elimination of taxes on tips.<\/p>\n

Loeffler and Mackenzie both emphasized that the bill also helped small businesses with tax deductions to help retain employees and regulatory rollback of \u201cbureaucratic\u201d regulations to help bring down operating costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To wind up her visit to the Lehigh Valley on Monday, U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,60,433,182,139,9790,28,50,664,432],"class_list":["post-146223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-business","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-parkland-area","tag-pennsylvania","tag-politics","tag-south-whitehall-township","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146223","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=146223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}