IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday January 5, 2009

MBRT Urges Bipartisan Congressional and White House Support to Boost Ailing U.S. Economy and Protect America's Small & Minority Businesses from Bankruptcy

• Calls to convene White House Summit on Minority Business
• Elevate SBA Administrator and Agency to Cabinet Rank
• Create economic stimulus package for small and minority business with greater federal lending authority, relaxing tight credit to access capital and open federal markets and contracts to help Main Street businesses
• Restore confidence in American financial markets through greater oversight and accountability to protect American retirement, savings, housing, and business

Washington, D.C. - These are troubling economic times where instead of having money flow to businesses, credit is tightening and banks are not lending. There is a complete lack of confidence in the government and Wall Street's ability to correct itself or manage this crisis. This peril was directly caused by a lack of oversight and accountability and suppressed financial information. Now we have learned that banks who have received hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are refusing to tell anyone where this money has gone and how it is being spent. "After supporting Congress and the Administration's efforts to help the U.S. economy, banks are not using these funds to lend to small and minority businesses that desperately need them to stay in business", said Roger A. Campos MBRT President & CEO. "After meeting with Secretary Paulson and his whole economic team on October 20, 2008, the Treasury Department's Neel Kashkari and Teresa Lewis, Director of the Small and Disadvantaged Business Office have not been responsive to the needs of small and minority businesses. Several of our MBRT members have innovative solutions to help fix problems and increase the flow of money going to Main Street, but their voices are not being heard."

Senator Cardin (D-MD) and a member of the Small Business Committee said, "We need to do something for our small businesses, which are the heart of our economy…employ about half of our workforce and are finding it increasingly difficult to access capital. There is support for an economic stimulus package that would include greater access to the SBA's loan programs and to micro loans that would help…"

Janice Bryant Howroyd, Chairman of the MBRT and CEO, Act-1 Group in Torrance, CA said, "The lessons and successes of our minority businesses that have reached scale are lessons that might well benefit any size company seeking to succeed in the new financial and global markets. It is not a hard reach to recognize that these business owners know what it takes to survive in hard times, to bring creative thought to business solutions, and to be responsible to employees and communities in the process. They have something to teach both the large corporate community and the governmental review and oversight entities. I strongly urge that both the Small Business and the Minority Business communities be participative at the highest level as we work through the restoration of our financial crisis and the confidence of those who are bearing the support."

Congress and the Obama White House will be forced to act and should put into place an emergency economic recovery plan to include small and minority businesses and establish a White House team to spearhead a federal Task Force so "Bailout" funds can be used wisely and get money flowing in time to help Main Street and small and minority businesses survive.

"Every American business is at risk if we do nothing", said Roger A. Campos, President & CEO. "The federal government must stop giving a blank corporate check to Wall Street and Big business without conditions that include small and minority businesses in the process or they should not receive any funds at all."

About the Minority Business RoundTable:

The Minority Business RoundTable is the only national non-profit organization for CEOs of the nation's leading African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American, Native-American and other minority-owned businesses. Its members analyze and help formulate effective public policies that impact minority-owned business. Our corporate members work to create sustainable communities and national economic viability through successful partnerships.

The Minority Business RoundTable is proud to have Glaxco Smith Kline, Equifax, Southwest Airlines, IMPAC real estate holding companies, the Allegis Group and Aerotek, Inc., the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of the country's leading corporations, Western Union, the Kauffman Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Small Business Administration, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Labor and other federal agencies, corporations and business trade groups as strategic partners. For more information on the Minority Business RoundTable, please visit www.mbrt.net.

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NEWS RELEASE

Minority Business Roundtable
1629 K Street, Suite 300
Washington, D.C. 20036

Contact: Roger A Campos
President & CEO
Minority Business Roundtable
202-289-8881
rogercampos@mbrt.net

Arizona and West Coast Office
Contact: Stephen P. Campos
stephencampos@mbrt.net
443-802-0045