Current:Home > StocksIn Milwaukee, Biden looks to highlight progress for Black-owned small businesses -StockLine
In Milwaukee, Biden looks to highlight progress for Black-owned small businesses
View
Date:2025-04-20 09:55:40
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is aiming to use a visit to the battleground state of Wisconsin on Wednesday to spotlight a surge in federal government support for Black-owned small businesses during his White House tenure and to highlight his administration’s efforts to ramp up investment in distressed communities.
The Small Business Administration in the last fiscal year backed 4,700 loans valued at $1.5 billion to Black-owned businesses. Under Biden, the SBA says it has more than doubled the number and total dollar amount of loans to Black-owned small businesses.
Since 2020, the share of the SBA’s loans going to minority-owned businesses has increased from 23% to over 32%.
Joelle Gamble, deputy director of the White House National Economic Council, said the president’s visit to the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce will give Biden a chance to show “how Bidenomics is driving a Black small business boom.”
Wisconsin was among the most competitive states in Biden’s 2020 election win over former President Donald Trump and will likely be key to his reelection hopes in 2024. Trump is the leading contender vying for the GOP 2024 presidential nomination.
In Wisconsin and beyond, Biden is trying to pep up American voters at a time when polls show people are largely dour about his handling of the economy. The president is struggling with poor approval ratings on the economy even as the unemployment rate hovers near historic lows and as inflation has plummeted in little over a year from 9.1% to 3.2%.
The White House said Biden also planned to highlight his administration’s push to replace the nation’s lead water service lines within 10 years, to ensure communities across the country, including Milwaukee, have safe drinking water.
Biden holds out his lead-pipe project as a generation-changing opportunity to reduce brain-damaging exposure to lead in schools, child care centers and more than 9 million U.S. homes that draw water from lead pipes. It’s also an effort that the administration says can help create plenty of good-paying union jobs around the country.
The president’s $1 trillion infrastructure legislation, passed in 2021, includes $15 billion for replacing lead pipes. Officials said the president during the visit would appear with the owner of Hero Plumbing, a Black-owned business that is replacing lead pipes in Milwaukee and benefitting from the infrastructure law.
Biden is also slated to announce that the Grow Milwaukee Coalition is one of 22 finalists for the Commerce Department’s “Recompete” pilot program, according to the White House. The program is funded by Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act, and is focused on investing $190 million in federal funding in job creation and small business growth in hard-hit U.S. communities.
The Grow Milwaukee Coalition proposal is centered on revitalizing Milwaukee’s 30th Street Industrial Corridor.
veryGood! (76175)
Related
- New Mexico governor seeks funding to recycle fracking water, expand preschool, treat mental health
- Baltimore Aspires to ‘Zero Waste’ But Recycles Only a Tiny Fraction of its Residential Plastic
- Kim Zolciak Teases Possible Reality TV Return Amid Nasty Kroy Biermann Divorce
- Amazon pauses construction in Virginia on its second headquarters
- Could Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft reunite? Maybe in Pro Football Hall of Fame's 2026 class
- Dave Grohl's Daughter Violet Joins Dad Onstage at Foo Fighters' Show at Glastonbury Festival
- Line 3 Drew Thousands of Protesters to Minnesota This Summer. Last Week, Enbridge Declared the Pipeline Almost Finished
- TikTok to limit the time teens can be on the app. Will safeguards help protect them?
- A White House order claims to end 'censorship.' What does that mean?
- Russia says Moscow and Crimea hit by Ukrainian drones while Russian forces bombard Ukraine’s south
Ranking
- DeepSeek: Did a little known Chinese startup cause a 'Sputnik moment' for AI?
- Jury to deliver verdict over Brussels extremist attacks that killed 32
- Inside Clean Energy: How Norway Shot to No. 1 in EVs
- 5 DeSantis allies now control Disney World's special district. Here's what's next
- Trump invites nearly all federal workers to quit now, get paid through September
- Alaska’s Dalton Highway Is Threatened by Climate Change and Facing a Highly Uncertain Future
- Shop J.Crew’s Extra 50% Off Sale and Get a $100 Skirt for $16, a $230 Pair of Heels for $28, and More
- These Stars' First Jobs Are So Relatable (Well, Almost)
Recommendation
Appeals court scraps Nasdaq boardroom diversity rules in latest DEI setback
Indigenous Tribes Facing Displacement in Alaska and Louisiana Say the U.S. Is Ignoring Climate Threats
A new movement is creating ways for low-income people to invest in real estate
Elon Musk apologizes after mocking laid-off Twitter employee with disability
Friday the 13th luck? 13 past Mega Millions jackpot wins in December. See top 10 lottery prizes
A “Tribute” to The Hunger Games: The Ultimate Fan Gift Guide
Inside Clean Energy: What Lauren Boebert Gets Wrong About Pueblo and Paris
Jennifer Lopez Says Twins Max and Emme Have Started Challenging Her Choices