[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 205 (Wednesday, October 25, 2023)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 73213-73214]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-23670]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 205 / Wednesday, October 25, 2023 /
Presidential Documents
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Title 3--
The President
[[Page 73213]]
Proclamation 10656 of October 20, 2023
Minority Enterprise Development Week, 2023
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
During Minority Enterprise Development Week, we honor
the innovators and job creators who run our minority-
owned businesses and recommit to providing them with
the resources they need to thrive and continue being
engines of our economy.
Minority enterprises provide critical goods and
services; generate nearly $2 trillion in revenue each
year; and serve as reminders of realized American
dreams and fulfilled hopes of economic mobility,
community uplift, and generational wealth. But even as
minority entrepreneurs make critical contributions to
our country, they still face barriers that prevent them
from reaching their full potential. Capital is
frequently inaccessible to minority-owned businesses.
Firms owned by minorities are more likely to experience
financial stress than those owned by non-minorities.
For too long, minority-owned companies had less access
to Government contracts, keeping them from accessing
some of the more than $650 billion spent by the Federal
Government on purchasing goods and services. These
conditions have made it so people who have the skills,
the drive, and the determination to succeed are often
unable to win in our economy.
My Administration is working to open the doors of
opportunity to include those who have been left behind
for too long. On my first day as President, I issued an
Executive Order directing the Federal Government to use
all the tools at its disposal to advance racial equity
and support underserved communities, and we have taken
steps to promote opportunities specifically for small
disadvantaged businesses ever since. For example, in my
Executive Order on Further Advancing Racial Justice and
Support for Underserved Communities, I directed
agencies to make efforts to increase the share of
Federal contracts going to these companies to 15
percent by 2025. Within a year, we increased the amount
these companies earned from Federal contracts by $7.5
billion--totaling nearly $70 billion in Fiscal Year
2022 alone. In addition, the Small Business
Administration (SBA) has supported billions of dollars
in lending to small businesses that would otherwise
struggle to access vital capital. As part of those
efforts, SBA has supported over $4 billion in loans to
Black- and Latino-owned small businesses. Since 2020,
the rate of SBA-backed loans going to Asian American-
owned businesses has increased by about 40 percent;
more than doubled for Black-owned businesses; and
doubled for Latino-owned businesses, reaching a record
$3 billion in lending. Indeed, Asian American-, Black-,
and Latino-owned businesses are seeing faster creation
rates today than they have in years. We have provided
billions of dollars in investments to support
Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-
Serving Institutions, and Asian American and Native
American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions as they
help build the next generation of minority
entrepreneurs.
Through the American Rescue Plan, which I signed soon
after coming into office to vaccinate the Nation and
rebuild our economy, we invested $10 billion to re-
establish and improve the State Small Business Credit
Initiative--a program that leverages investments from
the public and private sectors to increase access to
capital for small businesses across the country. Our
[[Page 73214]]
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also expanded and made
permanent the Minority Business Development Agency to
ensure that support is always available to minority-
owned businesses. We have also implemented other
historic bills like the Inflation Reduction Act and the
CHIPS and Science Act, we are ensuring minority
business enterprises benefit from billions of dollars
of investments to rebuild our roads and bridges, bring
manufacturing back to America, and unleash a clean
energy boom here at home.
America is the only Nation in the world founded on the
idea that we are all created equal and deserve to be
treated equally throughout our lives. We have never
fully lived up to that promise, but we have never
walked away from it either. This Minority Enterprise
Development Week, my Administration remains dedicated
to living up to our founding idea by leveling the
playing field for minority-owned businesses, ensuring
every American has the chance to build a business they
can be proud of and realize their American Dream.
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 October 22
through October 28, 2023, 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 promoting systemic economic
equality.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twentieth day of October, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
eighth.
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2023-23670
Filed 10-24-23; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P