Steve Cohen: “I want to thank my colleague from New York for yielding to me. This is a particularly important amendment because…”

“I want to thank my colleague from New York for yielding to me. This is a particularly important amendment because minority business development agencies give people a hand up, not a hand out. The fact is the folks on the other side are always talking about opportunities in businesses and in small business, and this is the ideal type of Federal Government program in which small business-- minorities--are given opportunities to get knowledge about contracting opportunities with the Federal Government and to get a share and get financing capabilities. Minorities have long been denied the opportunity to get adequate financing from our banking system, and they have been less than properly represented in the number of contracts they get from the Federal Government. The Minority Business Development Agency just put an office in my district in Memphis, Tennessee, which has the largest metropolitan population, African American population, in this country. Yet it wasn't until this year that a minority business office was placed there--the first one in the history of the State of Tennessee. There is a lot more that needs to be done to give people an opportunity. In this recession, small business has been hurt and minorities have been hurt, and minorities have been hurt in a disproportionate manner.…”