Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released this statement following news that late Friday night the Trump Administration signed Executive Orders to gut both the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and the Minority Business Development Agency.
“Late Friday night, Donald Trump took his cruelty and assault on underserved communities another dangerous step forward by ordering the dismantling of the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund and the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA). As history shows, generations of segregation and subjugation faced by communities of color have contributed to a lack of wealth building opportunities and a horribly unequal playing field.
“For more than three decades, CDFIs throughout the country — in rural, native, suburban, and urban communities alike — have stepped in to provide financial products and services for all families, including those who have been historically and systematically shut out from access to the traditional banking system. We saw just how crucial a role CDFIs played during the pandemic when our nation’s biggest banks refused to deliver badly needed relief to small businesses who were hit hard by the pandemic – instead prioritizing their wealthy concierge clients. In fact, Democrats and Republicans worked together during Trump’s first term to ensure CDFIs could serve as lifelines for these communities during a difficult time and played a pivotal role in helping many small businesses keep the lights on and protect what they worked so hard to build. More recently, Trump’s new Secretaries of Treasury as well as Housing and Urban Development claimed that CDFIs were ‘very important’ and had ‘value,’ but this announcement marks a significant betrayal of those words and past bipartisan efforts.
“The MBDA was established in 1969 within the first 100 days of President Nixon’s presidency as the only federal agency solely dedicated to the growth of minority business enterprises. Not even Nixon could turn a blind eye to how rigged the system was against communities of color. We saw the attack against the agency bubble up just last year when an extremist Trump judge chipped away the MBDA’s core mission by ruling the agency must now open its doors to every race. Therefore, this decision hurts small businesses that are in most need of capital and business resources.
“Let me be crystal clear, small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and all entrepreneurs should be given the chance to succeed. Small businesses are also the heart of our communities, and when given the chance, they create millions of jobs and drive economic growth in communities that need it most. Instead of gutting these crucial programs, this Administration should be supporting small businesses, strengthening CDFIs, expanding MBDA, and confronting the unjust financial system that persists today. I am deeply appalled by this decision and will use every tool available to fight back. I urge my Republican colleagues who claim they support small businesses and want to make community banking great again to have some courage and join us to support CDFIs and entrepreneurs.”
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