By: Steven Snow
U.S. Small Business Administration Pacific Regional Administrator overseeing the agency’s programs and services in California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, and Guam. Acting South Central Regional Administrator serving New Mexico and Texas.
A year into the Working Families Tax Cuts, signed by President Trump on July 4, 2025, we finally have an Administration delivering real results for the people who put food on America’s tables. As our nation marks its 250th anniversary, the American story has always been one of resilience, reinvention, and opportunity. Nowhere is that story clearer than on ranches that have survived droughts, floods, and regulatory whiplash—yet kept food flowing.
Thanks to the Working Families Tax Cuts, ranchers can deduct up to 20 percent of their qualified business income, keeping more of what they earn instead of sending it to Washington. They can write off the full cost of tractors, feed mixers, barns, and processing equipment in the year they buy them, using 100 percent expensing to invest in their operations instead of postponing growth. Tax policy that hinders food producers fails the very people our food system depends on.
Tax policy and regulatory policy must work together. For ranchers looking to invest in their operations, the Working Families Tax Cuts provide concrete advantages. It provides significant estate tax relief, so that family‑owned ranches are less likely to be broken up or sold off just to satisfy a tax bill when ownership passes to the next generation. Making key exemptions estate tax relief permanent reduces the threat of forced sales and helps preserve multigenerational operations that anchor rural communities.
The ranchers and producers who feed this country deserve a government that shows up and does its job. It’s also why cutting red tape is a necessity. At the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to combat lawfare aimed at farmers, ranchers, rural communities, and small businesses. This agreement gives producers a direct line to flag regulations and rules that drive up costs and cut into productivity, and it forces the federal government to look for patterns of abuse and fix them. That is what serious deregulation looks like: listening to people on the ground and changing the rules that hold them back.
For food producers looking to invest in their operations, SBA’s enhanced 90% Grocery Guarantee backs ranch‑related businesses across the food supply chain with a strong federal guarantee—from cattle operations and meat processing to cold storage and logistics. In practice, that means more lenders are willing to say “yes” when a rancher wants to modernize a plant, add capacity, or pursue export opportunities.
Another powerful tool available is the ability to combine SBA and USDA financing. Used together, these programs unlock more capital than either agency could on its own, allowing producers to scale up and diversify. In designated rural communities, businesses can tap the USDA Business & Industry Loan Guarantee—up to $25 million—for real estate, equipment, working capital, and debt refinancing. At SBA, we raised maximum loan limits starting July 4 so that businesses can combine 7(a) and 504 loans for up to $10 million in SBA‑backed financing, doubling the previous $5 million cap.
For many food producers, the real opportunity is not choosing between SBA and USDA but using the two programs strategically where the rules allow. That distinction matters. Businesses cannot use two federal programs to pay for the exact same cost, but they can often structure financing so that each loan supports a different part of the same broader project. A rural meat‑processing business, for example, might use USDA‑backed financing for real estate or construction and pair it with SBA‑backed financing for equipment, working capital, or distribution needs—so long as the uses are clearly separate and properly underwritten.
If you put food on our table, your government should back your hard work instead of getting in your way. That principle should guide every decision we make about tax policy, regulation, and rural investment, and that is exactly what SBA is delivering.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Katy News or its editorial staff.
