A bill introduced in the Senate Wednesday would assist aspiring and existing minority entrepreneurs in achieving success in the marketplace.

The Minority Entrepreneurship Development Act instructs the U.S. Small Business Administration, or SBA, to create an Office of Minority Small Business Development. The head of this new office will work with SBA’s partners, trade associations and business groups to identify more effective ways to market to minority business owners and increase lending and contracting opportunities for minority small businesses.

The new bill also calls for the establishment of a program at historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, and other minority institutions to steer students toward entrepreneurship as a career option.
 
The bill bears the name of Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts), a ranking member of the Senate’s Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Kerry’s proposal establishes a Minority Access to Information Distance Learning Pilot Program to create distance-learning programs for small business owners interested in contracting with the federal government.

The bill also reauthorizes the Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Business Program, which provides a Price Evaluation Adjustment for Socially and Economically Disadvantaged businesses as a way of increasing their competitiveness when bidding against larger firms. 

African Americans represent 12.3 percent of the population but only 4 percent of all U.S. businesses.