Former WWE exec McMahon pledges to back 'little guy' as SBA chief

Jan. 24 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump's nominee to head the country's top agency for small businesses cruised through a confirmation hearing in the Senate on Tuesday.

Linda E. McMahon answered questions before the Senate Small Business Committee Tuesday afternoon -- a hearing that lasted for less than two hours.

Potentially filling a lower profile position than most of the other Trump Cabinet nominees, McMahon appears to enjoy bipartisan support from Senate lawmakers and other government officials and will likely be easily confirmed as head of the Small Business Administration.

Perhaps the main question she responded to Tuesday was her stated belief years ago that the SBA should be merged with the U.S. Commerce Department -- a position she now disagrees with.

"[The] SBA needs to be a standalone agency," she told Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., the committee's ranking member. "I'm proud that President Trump has kept it as a cabinet post."

McMahon, a two-time U.S. Senate candidate and former professional wrestling executive, said during her hearing that as head of the SBA she would be a staunch advocate for "the little guy" by minimizing regulations.

"As an entrepreneur myself, I have shared the experiences of our nation's small business owners. We are more than our products and services. We are people, we are families," she said. "The small businesses that are the engine of our national economy are driven, in part, by people working to put food on the table."

McMahon, 68, unsuccessfully ran for the Senate as a representative of Connecticut twice, in 2010 and 2012. She co-founded World Wrestling Entertainment with her husband, Vince, in 1980 and later served in executive posts that included president and CEO.

In 2009, she was appointed to the Connecticut Board of Education, where she served for a year. She resigned the post for her first Senate bid, which she lost to Democrat Richard Blumenthal. Two years later, she lost an attempt to fill retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman's seat, to Democrat Chris Murphy. In each contest, she gained 43 percent of the vote to her opponents' 55 percent.

If approved by the Senate Small Business Committee, she will receive a vote in the full Senate.