[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

___________________________________________________________________

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.
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                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2023-23670
Filed 10-24-23; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P