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Dear friend,
Thank you again for signing up for my economic opportunity newsletter! We have a ton of exciting news this month on efforts to help our entrepreneurs, distressed communities and economy as a whole.
Don’t forget – you can sign up for similar newsletters on education, healthcare, and a variety of other issues here. Also, please remember to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for daily updates on how I am serving the people of South Carolina.
Bringing You On The Ground in Opportunity Zones
This month, I kicked off my Virtual Opportunity Zones Tour, which will bring you a ground-level view of zones across the country to see the amazing work happening. Our first stop was right at home in South Carolina, where a new venture in historically underserved Hampton County will create 1,500 jobs by 2025. For comparisons sake, this is nearly 20 percent of the total number of jobs in Hampton County in 2018. As South Carolina Representative Shedron D. Williams, who represents Hampton County, said, “lives here will be changed forever."
Stop number two on the tour will be coming next week, so be on the lookout for another great story from a different part of the country. The power of Opportunity Zones is real, and will be felt in all 50 states. We’re unleashing the power of the private sector, not government bureaucracy, to help our communities most in need – and it’s working.
Launching A New Generation of Main Street Entrepreneurs
I am very excited for a new bill I introduced last week – the Next Generation Entrepreneur Corps Act. The pandemic has proven both how important our entrepreneurs and small businesses are to our communities, as well as how critical it is we support their recovery efforts. The majority of would-be entrepreneurs have limited access to capital; this problem is worse for minorities – who are twice as likely to be denied loans, more likely to receive lower loan amounts when they do receive loans, and pay higher interest rates than their white peers. These barriers to entry are also stark in low-income areas, where there are proportionally fewer self-employed workers and small businesses.
With a five-year investment of $368 million, this important bill will identify talented entrepreneurs through a national competition and directly support the creation of more than 320 new businesses each year. You can read specifics on how the legislation works here, from the creation of a fellowship program to mentoring opportunities to providing access to capital.
Bipartisan Legislation To Help Rural and Minority Business Development
I worked across the aisle this year to develop the Reaching America’s Rural Minority Businesses Act, which would establish up to 10 business centers at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to serve rural and underserved communities. The legislation would authorize $10 million a year for the creation of up to 10 rural business centers at HBCUs. Eligible institutions would not have to be located in a rural area, but would need to demonstrate how they would serve a rural or underserved minority population. HBCUs would also be able to form a consortium with other HBCUs or institutions of higher learning, which would strengthen the capacity of an established center and broaden its outreach.
Read more on the specifics the centers would assist with here, as I have no doubt combining the power of our HBCUs and our rural job creators will blossom into something great. We’ve taken some amazing steps for our HBCUs over the past few years, including historic and permanent funding levels, and this will only broaden their ability to serve their communities!
Thank you again for signing up for my economic opportunity newsletter, if you have a minute to answer this month’s survey I would greatly appreciate it! Last month we heard about the importance you place on job training and access to mentoring and networking services.
Sincerely,
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