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The federal government is being

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forced to return more than $165

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billion in collected

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tariffs to domestic importers,

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and the online portal to request

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those refunds went live this

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week.

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The U.S. Supreme Court struck down

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President Trump's tariffs, resulting

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in the order to refund

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the import taxes.

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Wisconsin businesses are looking to

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get some relief, including

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Viroqua-based Wonder state

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coffee. With its three locations

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across the state.

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CEO T.J.

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Simansion joins us now from Faroqua

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and thanks a lot for being here.

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Good to be here, thank you.

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So first question, how much

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did tariffs cost you?

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Yeah, we paid almost

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$140,000

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in tariffs last year.

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That's a big number

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for any business,

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but in this tariff discussion,

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is coffee unusual because

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it's almost all imported?

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Yeah, we had been saying this from

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the get-go that we really didn't

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understand the purpose or the

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intent of taxing

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and tariffing a product that

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we can't even, you know,

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promote domestic production of.

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All coffee is grown in the tropics,

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there's a tiny bit grown in Puerto

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Rico and Hawaii, but not

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close to being able to meet

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the U.S. Demand.

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So we were, you know,

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paying a tax that we didn't

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understand what the impact

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was for.

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So, describe

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for me where you

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sourced your coffee from, what

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country.

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Yeah, we source a lot of coffee from

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Latin America,

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from places that people think about

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coffee, like Colombia, but also

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Peru,

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Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico,

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and then also in Africa.

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We bring in a lot coffee from

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Ethiopia, which is the birthplace of

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coffee, and also smaller

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countries like Rwanda

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and Burundi, Kenya.

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Did you ever reach out to

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your U.S.

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Representatives or other trade

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officials about

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the fact that

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coffee is almost

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100% imported?

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I did for sure.

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Yeah, I reached out to all of

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our elected officials,

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Derek Van Orden here in our

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Congressional Third District, and

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I even went to D.C.

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Last year and got a chance

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to speak to some senators

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and share

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our frustration and

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trying to just lend our voice

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as a small business, but

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also a small business that is

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importing what is a

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international product.

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What of the cost of the tariffs

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meant for your business?

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Yeah, last year it was really

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challenging.

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It was unexpected.

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You know, my 25 years in coffee,

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we've never even once

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considered a tariff

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on our coffee that

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we import.

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So it was a curve ball

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and already in a challenging

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business climate where other

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costs are going up like healthcare,

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shipping costs, things like that,

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that this was just one more.

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A headache, and again,

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not being expected at

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all. We had to deal with these

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costs. One of the things that people

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don't quite realize is we

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had to pay for the tariff before we

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even got the product in the country.

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So this is before we could even sell

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it. We had a borrow money to

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pay the tarif.

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So we were then paying interest

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costs on the

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money we borrowed for the tariffs.

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So all these things were compounding

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and just making it harder and harder

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for us.

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Have you gone online to request a

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refund?

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And if so, how is that process

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going?

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Yeah, we technically are not the

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importer of record.

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So we work with brokers who do

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a lot of the logistics for us.

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So their names are the ones that

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are on record for being the

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importers. So we're working with

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them as

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one of their clients.

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And they are applying

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for those refunds.

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And we haven't gotten any word of

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what the progress is.

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There's a lot uncertainty on how

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this process is going to unfold.

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Did those tariffs,

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as significant as they were for

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a small business, get passed along

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then to your customers?

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Yeah, in some way or fashion,

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they did. We had, again, last year

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was challenging in a lot of ways.

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Coffee itself, the

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cost, the commodity price of

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coffee skyrocketed last

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year.

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So we were paying a tariff

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on what was already

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a historical cost

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for coffee.

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So all these things were compounding

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and we did have a price increase

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last year that we passed on to

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our customers.

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And tariffs were a part of that.

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So the, you know, how much

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of that was the tariffs, gets a

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little confusing and, you know,

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just because there was a lot of

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factors.

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What has business planning been

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like over the course of these

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changeable tariffs?

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You mean the change that just

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the recent change in tariffs or

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just the changing back and forth?

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Changing back and forth and through

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the course of it and the uncertainty

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and how to

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plan for future business.

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Yeah, yeah, I mean, we had to

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re-forecast our profit in

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our budget last year.

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We even pulled back on

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some investments in

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growth.

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We decided not to buy

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a piece of equipment last

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year just because of the business

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climate.

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This would have been expanding

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our production capabilities.

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And this was a piece of equipment

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that the one that we were looking at

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was mostly built in Wisconsin.

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So we did not invest

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and we did make that purchase.

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So you can see even where the ripple

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effects might be.

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But we did pull back on

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our kind of expectations

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for growth and profit

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and even hiring and

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being able to invest in our staff.

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That.

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You know, coming into 2026

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with the change in tariffs.

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And it feels like, you know we are

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a little more optimistic kind of

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going, we're going back a whole year

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where we kind of came into 2025.

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We're kind of coming back into 20,

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26 with that perspective.

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But I would say that it felt like

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a whole year of just kind of a

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holding pattern.

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How optimistic are you that you will

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get the tariffs that you

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paid refunded?

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I'm a pretty optimistic person,

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so I put our chances at better than

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50 percent, but again, I'll

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believe it when the

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money is in our bank, because

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again, this has been such an

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uncertain process from the

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beginning.

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We're hoping that the administration

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doesn't fight as

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this portal is

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open and money actually starts

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flowing that they don't

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cut off those funds, but we

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don't know.

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We're not.

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We're not counting on it until we

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actually have the money in our bank,

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which might be months or a year from

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now. We don't know.

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Not banking out.

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All right, T.J.

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Simansion, thanks very much.

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All right, thank you.

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Thank you, sir.

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All right, you're welcome.

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Now back to coffee roasting and

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tasting and badging and salad.

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Back to it.

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Yeah.

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Thank you so much.

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Yeah, you have a good day.

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Take care.