According to reports from the Commerce Department, the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) will close all five of its regional offices in an effort to cut operating costs. The MBDA offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and New York will close by September 30, while the San Francisco office will close in March of 2013. Staff from these offices will be reassigned to Washington or offered early-retirement and buyout incentives. The move is expected to save the agency about $1.5 million, or about 5% of its annual budget.
Several members of Congress present at a meeting last week expressed displeasure with this decision and voiced concerns about the already challenging state of minority business and contracting. “It sends the wrong message to entrepreneurs and businesses in our community at this time when we need to have an expansion,” Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) said. Rush added that he has had a great working relationship with the regional office in Chicago.
Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) expressed a common sentiment regarding the effectiveness of a single office in Washington. “My regional office is in Atlanta. To just have a hub in Washington that services the whole country will not be an efficient use of that office,” he said.
Minority Business Development Centers, which are operated through short-term grants from the MBDA and operated by select non-profit organizations, will continue to operate across the country.
Read more about this story at Federal Times and at Politic365.
Closing the Regional MBDA Offices is outrageous. This is the only federal agency that serves “minority owned” businesses in the country! Now the few regional offices available to the minority, small business community are on the chopping block? Not Acceptable! Cut somewhere else! This is definately the wrong message being sent to small, minority owned businesses!