FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Honorable Barack H. Obama
President of the United States


Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Vice President of the United States


Honorable Timothy F. Geithner
Secretary Department of Treasury


Honorable Lawrence H. Summers
Director White House National Economic Council


Honorable Christina Romer
Chair White House Council of Economic Advisors


Honorable Peter Orszag
Director Office of Management & Budget


Dear President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary Geithner, Secretary Summers, Chair Romer, and Director Orszag:

We are extremely disappointed that small and minority businesses have been excluded from participating in the President’s Fiscal Responsibility Summit, Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, and shut out in the dialogue of implementing solutions in the economic stabilization act ($700 billion bailout) and the recovery plan passed by Congress in the amount of $787 billion.

We note that other stakeholder groups particularly those representing banks and big business are taking a disproportionate number of seats at the table, but not our organizations that represent millions of American small, minority and women owned businesses throughout America and employ millions of working family members, are left underrepresented in the process. Small and minority businesses have been the economic drivers who fueled the economy prior to our current financial crisis; our views must be heard.

We are Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans-all of whom have experienced and continue to experience discrimination in the marketplace (anecdotal and statistics support these facts), and American small business owners who along with Women and Veteran owned businesses, have created the most jobs and were responsible for the most innovation, advancing technology and growth in the U.S. economy. Everyone recognizes that America’s 27 million small and minority businesses are the backbone of our economy and produce half of the gross domestic product, employ half of the private-sector workforce, and create 60% to 80% of all net new jobs. We do not understand why we were left out of the TARP bailout and the national dialogue on utilizing our valuable contributions and resources? If President Obama’s economic stimulus plan is to succeed and to create 3 to 4 million new jobs, we should be engaged as stakeholders in this important national dialogue. You should look to us as a resource to mobilize and implement programs that create jobs to stimulate the economy. We cannot afford to fail, and divided we risk that failure.

We urge that you include our views in the economic stimulus dialogue and we ask for a seat at the table to ensure and guarantee that our small, minority, and women owned businesses are part of the financial work-out plans of the Economic Recovery effort.

As part of the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, you should include an analysis of financial and operational restructuring and assistance for small, minority, and women owned auto suppliers and dealers who are role models in their respective communities and employ hundreds of thousands of workers in inner cities like Detroit which has seen unprecedented economic devastation. We suggest that Task Force team members be sent to Detroit to meet with the largest minority auto suppliers and manufacturers to see first hand what has happened to their businesses when banks do not provide the necessary access to capital and lending from bailout dollars meant to be used for these “main street” businesses. We encourage you to talk directly with minority CEO’s to understand their concerns, needs and potential solutions. It is only through this type of constructive dialogue with stakeholders that measures can be fully assessed, implemented, and action taken.

Virtually every American small business owner has witnessed the decline and evaporation of their credit lines which negatively impact their ability to stay in business. Businesses of all sizes, but particularly small, minority, and women owned businesses are laying off hundreds of thousands of American workers and as a result, we run the risk of even further employment declines and historic numbers of bankruptcies. If Treasury fails to act aggressively and broadly, and require lenders to open up lending, our associations’ members will find it more difficult, if not impossible to secure credit to run their companies. Our members, employees, and families will find it harder to stay in their homes, get mortgages, secure auto loans, maintain healthcare, and borrow money to send their children to college. These hardships will lead to further deterioration of our already fragile economy.

Americans rely on credit and liquid markets to make our economy function, and we will continue to see our economy and the well-being of all Americans impacted unless Treasury and the White House act to provide desperately needed assistance.

There are certain actions the White House and Treasury can take immediately to mitigate disaster. We urge you to help restore the flow of capital to small, minority, and women owned businesses and those who are located in HUBZones or distressed rural and urban areas through a $50 billion investment pool of TARP funds earmarked for contracts, grants and loans directing the Treasury, Federal Reserve, banks, lending institutions including the Small Business Administration, and other federal agencies and departments to take immediate administrative action to loosen lending requirements, expand the government’s financial guarantee loan programs, and procure more contracts and grants for small, minority, and women owned businesses.

Specifically, we encourage you to:

• Appoint a person in White House responsible for small, minority, and women owned business;
• Recommend that the President elevate the SBA Administrator to Cabinet Rank;
• Convene a White House Summit on Minority Business;
• Include small, minority, and women owned businesses as participants in conferences, meetings, fiscal initiatives, task force groups including the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry and other entities to be formed;
• Enforce government contracting provisions and goals in all agencies that call for 23% of all contracts to be awarded to small, minority, and women owned businesses;
• Mobilize the SBA to authorize more loan guarantees and increase lending limits;
• Increase bonding capacity for small businesses to enhance their ability to compete for construction infrastructure projects;
• Provide advance payments on government contracts;
• Loosen up equity injection rules and be aware that “home equity loans” often used to get cash for equity injections may be very difficult to secure;
• Relax the rules for refinancing (since many small business owners resort to using credit cards to replace lines of credit that have dried up, banks need to make it easier to refinance credit card debt with better terms);
• Implement credit card reform requirements and ban practices that increase interest rates and charge late fees without notice, and also reduce exorbitant interest rates;
• Allow those with current loans to restructure them to reduce payments;
• Provide incentives to banks and lending institutions such as writing off interest received from TARP funds if loaned to small, minority, and women owned businesses;
• Provide a capital investment pool of $50 Billion designated from TARP loan funds for use solely for small and minority businesses;
• Provide penalties to agencies, businesses, banks and lenders who fail to comply with government rules and regulations;
• Adopt provisions to preclude the federal government and individuals agencies from counting large businesses towards their congressionally mandated small business procurement goals;
• Adopt provisions to develop a pilot program for small, minority, and women owned businesses to contract or team together and enable small businesses to compete for larger contract awards; and
• Draft a Presidential Executive Order requiring all agencies and departments to prioritize small, minority, and women owned business contracting as cost effective tool to reduce costs and prevent waste, fraud and abuse.

You need to restore confidence in our procurement and financial markets and provide accountability. You need to be responsive to the needs of America’s businesses without jeopardizing their ability to access capital and markets. Millions of small and minority business owners, their workers, and their families are at grave risk if they are left out of America’s economic stimulus and recovery dialogue and implementation plan.

We stand ready to support the Obama Stimulus Plan, but need your help now to include small, minority, and women owned businesses as part of the solution in the nation’s Economic Recovery discussion.

We would like to schedule a meeting with you and members of the Treasury and White House economic teams to discuss your plans for inclusion of small, minority, and women businesses and will contact your office. You may also contact Roger A. Campos at (202) 289-8881 or rogercampos@mbrt.net.

Sincerely,
Roger A. Campos, President
Minority Business RoundTable

Hank Wilfong, Jr., President
National Association of Small Disadvantaged Businesses

Michael A. Grant, President
National Bankers Association

Lloyd Chapman, President
American Small Business League

Anthony W. Robinson, President
Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense & Education Fund

Louis Green, President
Michigan Minority Business Development Council

Leon C. Richardson, President
National Association of Black Automotive Suppliers

Jacqueline Johnson, Executive
Director National Congress of American Indians

Raul Espinosa, President
Fairness in Procurement Alliance

Charles Ramos, President
Baltimore Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Harriet Michel, President
National Minority Supplier Development Council

Al Pina, Chairman
Florida Minority Community Reinvestment Coalition

Margot Dorffman, CEO
U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce

Ronald J. Solimon, Chairman
National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development

Lance Morgan, Chairman
Native American Contractors Association

Luis Borunda, President
U.S. Hispanic Youth Entrepreneur & Education

Dr. Rawley Soberano, President
Asian American Business Roundtable

Ola Famuyiwa, Chairman
African Business Roundtable-USA