Dem Senators aim to lift MBDA; invest $350B for minority needs

      Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY and other Democratic senators are laying out several significant proposals for empowering minority small businesses and communities.

      These include plans to revitalize the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) at the Commerce Dept. and to invest $350 billion in communities of color.

      Sen. Ben Cardin, D-MD, and several other Democratic senators introduced legislation to make the MBDA, created by executive order in 1969, a permanent agency. It also would formally authorize its Minority Business Development Center program.

      The Minority Business Resiliency Act also would:

• Increase the MBDA’s 2020 budget;
• Create a new entrepreneurship program for Blacks and minorities;
• Authorize regional and district MBDA offices;

     In recent years, the MBDA’s budget has been cut, and President Trump in 2017 proposed eliminating the MBDA. In June, David J. Byrd, a senior policy aide to Housing Secretary Ben Carson, was named to lead the MBDA.

Economic Justice Act

      Schumer, Cardin and other Democrats announced their Economic Justice Act legislation to channel $135 billion into immediate coronavirus aid for minority communities for child care, primary care, mental health and job training, including $25 billion for community-focused lenders.

      Another $215 billion over five years would pay for community infrastructure, tax credits for renters and homeowners, Medicaid expansion and several more initiatives.

      The funding would be partially paid for by re-programming $200 billion of unspent CARES Act funds provided to the Treasury Dept. to facilitate corporate lending.

More information:
Minority Business Resiliency Act press release: https://bit.ly/330hTXO
Economic Justice Act press release: https://bit.ly/32XDUpX

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