Less stimulus money for minority firm
Latinos and blacks own 6.8 and 5.2 percent of all businesses, respectively, according to census figures. Yet they have received only 1.7 percent and just 1.1 percent, respectively, of $46 billion in federal stimulus contracts.
Jesse Washington, Associated Press, in Greensboro News & Record | NC
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Hispanic and black businesses are receiving a disproportionately small number of federal stimulus contracts, creating a rising chorus of demands for the Obama administration to be more inclusive and more closely track who receives government-financed work.
Latinos and blacks have faced obstacles to winning government contracts long before the stimulus. They own 6.8 and 5.2 percent of all businesses, respectively, according to census figures. Yet Latino-owned business have received only 1.7 percent of $46 billion in federal stimulus contracts recorded in U.S. government data, and black-owned businesses have received just 1.1 percent.
That pot of money is just a small fraction of the $862 billion economic stimulus law. Billions more have been given to states, which have used the money to award contracts of their own.
