It’s critical that we bridge not only the income gap, but the racial inequality gap. There’s still a lot of work to do to close these gaps. That’s why this discussion is so important. The report that you released, “The Color of Entrepreneurship,” shows that, in a more equal society, where there would be opportunities for all, we would have 1 million more businesses owned by people of color. We know that minority businesses hire people who are unemployed and need a good-paying jobs. I’m a former business owner myself. I owned a facilities-management company with 350-400 employees for 11 years. The difficulties I had then, in the ‘80s and ‘90s, to access capital, to make sure that my company had access to federal contracting opportunities, were tremendous. We had to work 10 times harder with fewer resources. I’m n the Appropriations Committee and every time we have mark-ups I try to include language in these bills to ensure that federal agencies provide equal opportunity for minority and women-owned businesses. This is the work we do here on the Hill that we need you to push for. The laws are there to make sure that these businesses have access to contracts and resources that you need to run a successful business. But what happens is these agencies don’t comply with the law, so we have to make sure as members of Congress that they report back to us. Remember that economic mobility and racial justice go together.
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