The U.S. Congress is currently debating President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package. If the bill passes, the city of Augusta stands to receive around $40 million in stimulus funding, and the local Black Chamber of Commerce wants to make sure those funds are spent wisely.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Sharonda Williams offered statistics on how Black-owned businesses are suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Forty-one percent of Black businesses are projected to close,” Williams told the commission, “and the majority of Black-owned businesses that applied through the Payroll Protection Program were denied.”
Williams also told commissioners that 95 percent of Black-owned businesses were shut out of small business initiatives and that unemployment among the Black population in Augusta is double what it was this time last year.
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Even though Congress has yet to have a final vote on Biden’s COVID-19 relief bill, Williams told commissioners that she wanted her group to work along with the city when funding becomes available to make sure that funding is made direct to Black-owned businesses.
City Administrator Odie Daniels agreed to continue to meet with Williams and her group and that when funding does come through that the money will be allocated to local groups in a competitive process.
“We can’t commit wholly to one group,” Daniels said. “Once the legislation is passed, we can have that competitive process and then let the rubber hit the road.”
The legislation has been stalled in Congress due to the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump as well as the provision to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, which is included in the bill.
President Biden is expected to speak on the matter at a town hall tomorrow that is set to be aired on CNN.
Scott Hudson is the Editorial Page Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
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