Sending Office: Honorable Jerry McNerney
Sent By:
Lauren.Hernandez@mail.house.gov
Support the Minority Business Development Agency in FY21
Click here to sign on!
Closing COB TODAY
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Dear Colleague:
The Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) is the sole federal agency with the mission to promote the growth of minority-owned businesses through the mobilization and advancement of public and private sector programs, policy,
and research. I am sending a letter to the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies in support of FY2021 funding for the agency. While other federal agencies focus on broader demographic and emerging businesses, MBDA focuses exclusively
on the unique needs of minority-owned businesses and middle stage businesses.
MBDA has been a tremendous success for minority-owned businesses. The agency helped minority-owned businesses create and retain 30,656 jobs in FY2014. In addition, MBDA business center clients were able to grow their exporting from $40 million in FY2013
to $784 million in FY2014.
President Nixon created this federal agency for “the establishment, preservation, and strengthening of minority business enterprise,” and MBDA continues to play that critical role today. Our country’s diversity is its strength, and through MBDA we can leverage
the strengths of minority-owned businesses to grow the American economy and create family-wage jobs in communities all across the nation.
I urge you to join me in supporting minority business development. To sign onto this letter, please
fill out this form. If you have any questions, please contact Lauren Hernandez in my office at 225-1947 or
lauren.hernandez@mail.house.gov.
March XX, 2020
The Honorable Jose Serrano, Chair
Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice,
Science, and Related Agencies
House Committee on Appropriations
H-307, The Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20515
The Honorable Robert Aderholt, Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice,
Science, and Related Agencies
House Committee on Appropriations
1016 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Chainman Serrano, and Ranking Member Aderholt:
We write to request that as you negotiate and finalize legislation to fund the government for the FY 2021 budget cycle that you would fund the Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) at $50,000,000. While other federal agencies
focus on broader demographic and emerging businesses, MBDA focuses exclusively on the unique needs of minority-owned businesses and middle stage businesses.
The MBDA was established by President Richard Nixon through Executive Order 11458 in 1969. It is the only federal agency whose mission is to specifically advance the growth of minority-owned businesses across the nation. This year President Trump’s FY 2021
budget blueprint recommended that MBDA be funded at $10,000,000.
As one of the fastest growing business sectors in the United States, the economic impact of minority-owned firms continues to strengthen the American business landscape of the 21st century. MBDA’s national network of 33 business centers has helped
minority-owned business enterprises gain access to capital, contracts, and new markets through public-private engagement. Each center provides businesses with services to assist them to grow in size and scale. Activities are not in duplication of any Small
Business Administration program, and include bid proposal support, pricing, commercializing technology, pitching to investors, merging and acquiring firms, and assistance with securing investment. Over the past ten years, MBDA’s programs and services have
secured more than $40 billion in contracts and capital. Furthermore, minority-owned businesses are twice as likely to generate sales through exports compared to non-minority-owned firms due to language and cultural ties to foreign markets. MBDA promotes business-to-business
partnerships between U.S. minority-owned firms and firms in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Europe.
As diversity continues to spearhead a new chapter in our nation’s economic growth, MBDA is supporting the next generation of minority-owned businesses by increasing the capacity of regional economies. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 Survey of
Business Owners, these minority business enterprise firms contributed over $1 trillion in total economic output. These findings highlight that the economic contribution of these firms has a significant impact on the national economy, and more recent Census
reports demonstrate that this impact is continuing to grow. However, there are still challenges that minority-owned businesses disproportionately face compared to other non-minority-owned businesses. These obstacles include barriers to accessing capital, contracts,
and export markets. There is also an impediment in not having existing informal networks that businesses traditionally rely on for pursuing business opportunities.
MBDA helps firms to realize their full economic potential through technical assistance, public and private contracting opportunities, advocacy, research and education, and serving as a strategic partner for growth and development. MBDA is the only federal
agency dedicated to the growth and global competitiveness of our nation’s 11 million minority-owned business enterprises.
Given the economic challenges that minority-owned business face and the income and wealth gaps between minority and non-minority communities, it is important that we fund MBDA to tackle and support these minority-owned firms with overcoming some of the obstacles
that they disproportionately encounter.
Thank you for your commitment to ensuring that minority-owned businesses are able to maximize their potential, and for your consideration of this request.
Sincerely,
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