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Evans Announces $304,000 Grant for The Enterprise Center

April 2, 2019

Congressman Dwight Evans (PA-03) today announced a $304,475 federal grant for The Enterprise Center in West Philadelphia to help minority-owned and operated businesses in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

The organization will use the funding for its Minority Business Development Agency Business Center-Pennsylvania, which focuses on maximizing job creation for minority business entrepreneurs in the three states, said Evans, vice chair of the House Small Business Committee.

"I'm proud that an organization based in West Philadelphia has received another large grant to continue supporting new and existing small businesses that are the backbone of our communities, including our middle neighborhoods that can tip toward blight or growth. I have long supported The Enterprise Center and its vital work of helping local small businesses succeed," Evans said.

"The Enterprise Center has a proud thirty-year history of helping minority businesses grow here in the Philadelphia market. We are pleased to be able to continue to operate the Philadelphia Minority Business Development Agency with another year of federal funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The support of Congressman Evans and the many small businesses we work with demonstrate the importance of this growth of minority small businesses to our local economic health," said Victoria Hosendorf, vice president of The Enterprise Center.

Evans said he and the House Democratic majority will defend the Minority Business Development Agency's funding from President Trump's proposed 75 percent budget cut. Trump recently proposed slashing the agency's funding from $40 million to $10 million, along with other cuts that would hurt America's small business owners and employees.

"We protected the Minority Business Development Agency's funding in the last budget and we will fight to do so again. This federal funding makes a real difference in our communities, and minority-owned businesses are one of the faster-growing subsets of entrepreneurs," Evans said.

Media Contact: Ben Turner, Ben.Turner@mail.house.gov