Presidential Document2022-20579
Minority Enterprise Development Week, 2022
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
September 21, 2022
Signed
September 16, 2022
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 182 (Wednesday, September 21, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 182 (Wednesday, September 21, 2022)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 57563-57564]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-20579]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 87 , No. 182 / Wednesday, September 21, 2022
/ Presidential Documents
[[Page 57563]]
Proclamation 10449 of September 16, 2022
Minority Enterprise Development Week, 2022
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Every day, America's 9.2 million minority business
enterprises deliver essential goods and services to
their customers and help power the United States
economy. They develop cutting-edge technologies,
provide social services to people in need, construct
roads and bridges, operate restaurants and retail
shops, and make vital contributions to all industries.
Minority business enterprises also provide proprietors
and employees a sense of purpose, a source of dignity,
and for some, a valuable asset to pass down through
generations. During Minority Enterprise Development
Week, we celebrate the ingenuity and dedication of
America's minority entrepreneurs, and we recommit to
helping all Americans access the resources they need to
build thriving businesses and a fairer, more prosperous
Nation.
Minority business enterprises generate $1.8 trillion in
annual GDP and provide income to millions of workers,
yet many of these businesses suffer from the vestiges
of historical discrimination. Obstacles to accessing
capital, barriers to entering new markets, and limited
access to Government contracts make it difficult for
operators to start and grow their enterprises. Minority
business owners are still more likely to be turned down
for loans, earn less revenue, and employ fewer workers
than their non-minority counterparts. Today, firms
owned by Black Americans, Latinos, American Indians,
Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and
Pacific Islanders make up approximately 18 percent of
employer businesses, yet receive just over 10 percent
of Federal procurement spending. These disparities
contribute to America's racial wealth gap; estimates
suggest that differences in business ownership account
for 20 percent of the wealth gap between the average
white household and the average Black household.
My Administration is committed to changing that. We
have taken historic steps to counter chronic
underinvestment in Black and Brown communities,
boosting access to capital and markets. Our American
Rescue Plan established the $10 billion State Small
Business Credit Initiative at the Department of the
Treasury, which will provide funding to States,
territories, and Tribal Governments to establish
lending and investment programs for main-street small
businesses and early-stage companies in disadvantaged
areas. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law made permanent
the Minority Business Development Agency, the only
Federal agency dedicated to linking minority-owned
businesses to private lenders, exporters, and public-
and private-sector buyers; and it directs the
Department of Transportation to prioritize contracts to
small disadvantaged businesses. My Administration is
also using the Federal Government's tremendous
purchasing power to drive change: We have pledged to
boost the share of Federal contracting dollars awarded
to small disadvantaged businesses by an unprecedented
50 percent by 2025, which is projected to bring
minority-owned businesses as much as $100 billion in
new revenue over this time period.
Our work is far from finished. I am calling on the
Congress to strengthen funding for the Small Business
Administration and the Minority Business Development
Agency to support women, people of color, people with
disabilities, veterans, and other underserved business
owners. I have also called
[[Page 57564]]
for the expansion of the Treasury Department's
Community Development Financial Institutions Fund,
which will help local lenders deliver more credit,
capital, and financial support to historically
overlooked business owners and communities.
Since this Nation's founding, owning and operating a
business has been an important path to achieving the
American dream. This week and every week, my
Administration will work to ensure that minority
entrepreneurs have the resources to start and grow
their own businesses, enriching their communities and
the Nation. Together, we will grow the economy from the
bottom up and the middle out, making sure it works for
everyone.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 18
through September 24, 2022, as Minority Enterprise
Development Week. I call upon the people of the United
States to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements
and contributions of minority business owners and
enterprises and commit to promote systemic economic
equality.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
sixteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
seventh.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2022-20579
Filed 9-20-22; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F2-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on September 21, 2022.
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