Blogs

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced a new Obama Administration initiative designed to streamline government bureaucracy and bring services and solutions directly to businesses and entrepreneurs creating and sustaining jobs. Locke made his announcement at the Detroit Economic Club’s National Summit. The new initiative will be launched this summer in the Detroit area.

Responding both to President Obama’s call to make government more responsive and a once-in-a-generation economic crisis, Locke initiated the effort after seeing how complicated it can be to navigate the alphabet soup of Commerce agencies and programs.

Last week the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights - a common sense financial system reform and consumer protection.  This bill provides  tough new protections for consumers facing excessive credit card fees, sky high interest rates and unfair agreements that credit card companies revise at will.

This bill is important to the establishment and growth of minority businesses because a greater proportion of minority-owned firms are started or acquired by using credit cards (10 percent of firms) among other sources of capital, compared to non-minority firms (9 percent of firms), according to MBDA’s “Characteristics of Minority Businesses and Entrepreneurs.” (March 2008)

In 1972, Phil Archuleta started P&M Signs in the rural community of Mountainaire, New Mexico. Back then, Mr. Archuleta probably didn’t know his company would be one of MBDA’s first and longest-standing clients but now nearly 40 years later he’s seen his company grow substantially, more than doubling gross sales and hiring 30 new employees along the way.  

Its minority entrepreneurs like Mr. Archuleta who inspired Representatives Mike Honda (D-CA), Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Dale Kildee (D-MI) to sponsor a resolution (H. Res. 215) to recognize MBDA and its network of business centers’ accomplishments, highlighting the importance of minority businesses on our economy.

On March 5, 1969, President Richard Nixon established what is today called the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) at the U.S. Department of Commerce.  Over the last four decades, MBDA has promoted the establishment and growth of minority businesses in the United States.  MBDA is the only federal agency tasked with advancing the competitiveness of minority businesses and throughout the year will be highlighting those minority businesses that have benefited from MBDA programs and the people and communities it has impacted.

MBDA prides itself on remarkable success.  In 2008, the Agency ranked as one of the top three bureaus within the U.S. Department of Commerce and touched more than 25,000 minority businesses, in turn, they created more than 5,000 new jobs.  In addition, MBDA programs generated $1.85 billion in terms of dollar value of contract and financial awards to minority businesses.