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Remarks Prepared for Delivery by
U.S. Secretary of
Labor Elaine L. Chao
Minority Business RoundTable
Washington, D.C.
Thursday, December 2, 2004
Thank you, Daniel [Heath, National Economic Council Associate Director].
It's a pleasure to be here with you today, following Secretary Mineta and
Administrator Barreto. And I want to congratulate Wayne Newton on receiving
the Minority Business Round Table's Distinguished Entertainer Entrepreneur
Award this morning. Their stories are inspiring tributes to our nation's
diversity and to the opportunities available in our society.
I am proud to work for President George W. Bush, who has done so much to
reach out to our communities. As many of you know, the President is a true
friend of entrepreneurs, especially small and disadvantaged entrepreneurs.
Under his leadership, this Administration has launched many programs focused
specifically on your needs. Chief among these is creating the climate for
steady, consistent economic growth so that your businesses can thrive and
new jobs can be created.
Just look at how far we've come in the past four years. Interest rates are
near 40 year lows. Consumer confidence remains high. The third quarter 2004
growth rate was 3.9 percent, higher than expected. And our country has enjoyed
14 straight months of job growth. Nearly 2.4 million jobs have been created
since August 2003. The unemployment rate [5.5%] remains below the
national average of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
In addition to creating the climate for growth, the President is committed
to ensuring that you have the skilled workforce you need to grow and succeed.
Each one of you, as a successful business leader, understands that human
capital is your most precious asset. In other words, your success depends
upon finding the right workers and empowering them to succeed. That means
maintaining an educated, skilled workforce is not only the key to your success—but
the key to our success as a nation.
That's why the President's education reform, No Child Left Behind, and his
initiatives to train workers with the skills in demand right now are so important.
In the knowledge era of the 21st century, workers must cultivate the habit
of lifelong learning and continually update their skills in order to build
solid career paths. This can be a challenge in a nation with a workforce
as diverse as ours. In 2004, 29 percent of the U.S. workforce was comprised
of members of minority communities.
To meet these challenges, the President is committed to ensuring that no worker is
left behind. That's why the President has launched several major initiatives
to ensure better job training for all the nation's
workers. These include a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's publicly
funded job-training system to link it to employers like you, who have jobs
to fill. It also includes several key initiatives—such as the High Growth
Job Training Initiative—to expand job training for high-growth fields experiencing
worker shortages. These include health care, biotech, skilled trades, advanced
manufacturing and other sectors. In addition, this Administration is focused
on addressing the unique workforce needs of our nation's diverse communities.
The Department of Labor, for example, has awarded $9.2 million to the National
Urban League for its national Youth Preparation Program and $3 million over
three years to Cincinnati 's Youth Employment Development Initiative. The
Department has also awarded $2.7 million to Esperanza USA and $2 million
to the Latino Coalition. These grants help fund programs that train young
people for good jobs.
The Labor Department has also launched a Hispanic Worker Initiative. This
is an effort to address the workforce needs of the Hispanic American community,
especially newcomers, and help them prepare for and find good jobs with solid
career paths. As part of our effort to meet the special needs of immigrant
communities, the Department established a Hispanic Workers Task Force. It
is dedicated to improving outreach and preventing fatalities among Hispanic
workers, especially those employed in the construction industry and other
skilled trades.
In July, the Department of Labor sponsored a Hispanic Safety and Health
Summit. Employers at this event learned how to reduce illnesses, injuries,
and fatalities among Hispanic workers. Thanks to these and other outreach
efforts, injury and fatality rates among Hispanic workers are beginning to
decline for the first time in many years.
The Department is also helping members of your communities access seed capital
and learn entrepreneurial skills. In October, the Department hosted its second
nationwide Opportunity Conference to help small businesses and community
organizations serving the Asian Pacific and Hispanic American communities.
This Administration also launched a $9-million project, in partnership with
the Small Business Administration, to help Asian Pacific American entrepreneurs
access seed capital. And the Department of Labor has sponsored five Summits
on Women's Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century during the Bush Administration.
There are nearly 1 million businesses today owned by minority women. And
one in six women business owners is an African-American, Hispanic, Native
American or Asian and Pacific Islander. That's an amazing statistic! It's
a tribute to the talent and innovation in these communities.
In addition to the programs I've mentioned, the Department of Labor has
a mission to ensure a level playing field for all workers and to take action
against employment discrimination. As you may know, the Labor Department
enforces only laws that prohibit employment discrimination by federal contractors
and subcontractors. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has
broader jurisdiction and responsibilities for enforcing federal laws prohibiting
discrimination. It's important for small and disadvantaged businesses to
understand that, when it comes to participation in government contracting
opportunities, diversity is an asset.
The Department of Labor is committed to implementing the President's agenda
of enhancing opportunities for small and disadvantaged businesses. Several
of the Department's construction, information technology and other contracts
are set aside for minority owned businesses.
And the Department does not bundle contracts. This is critical to helping
small and disadvantaged businesses get their fair share of contracting opportunities.
I'm proud of the fact that this year, the Labor Department has already met
its goal for small and disadvantaged businesses. The Department has awarded
$153 million in contracts to small and disadvantaged businesses.
And for next year, the goal is to increase the Department's prime contracting awards
for small and disadvantaged businesses to $165.8 million. For its prime contractors,
the Department's goal is to award $57.2 million in subcontracts to
small and disadvantaged businesses. The Labor Department ranks among the
best performing federal agencies in subcontracting to small and disadvantaged
businesses.
Outreach is vital to helping minority owned businesses learn about the contracting
opportunities available with the Department of Labor. That's why the Department's
Job Corps Program continually reaches out to minority owned businesses in
the acquisitions process. That's important because the Job Corps Program
accounts for 75 percent of all DOL procurement dollars. DOL representatives
also participate in small and minority owned business outreach conferences
throughout the country.
The Department of Labor is committed to maintaining an environment that
encourages minority entrepreneurship. We want to ensure that the doors of
opportunity remain wide open to you.
So, thank you for everything you are doing to create new jobs and to make
the American dream a reality for so many. You are part of the remarkable
diversity that makes our country—and our economy—so strong and vibrant.
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