Exclusive: Rep. Ritchie Torres to introduce bill to collect LGBTQ small-business loan data

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Rep. Ritchie Torres to introduce bill to collect LGBTQ small-business loan data, aiming to ensure business owners have access to credit.

Torres said he will introduce the bill Monday, and that it is part of his effort to continue work that began when he was on the New York City Council. “I partnered with the LGBT Chamber of Commerce to persuade America's largest city to adopt a certification program for LGBTQ enterprises,” Torres said, referring to a recent change by New York City that made LGBTQ businesses eligible forTorres’ said this new bill is “a natural complement to the Equality Act,” which the House passed Thursday.

The Equality Act will protect against credit discrimination, but Torres said “that’s a floor, rather than a ceiling.” So once credit discrimination is a “thing of the past, we have to see to it that LGBTQ enterprises have their fair share of access to capital.” His bill “would essentially make the Equal Credit Opportunity Act LGBTQ inclusive” by requiring financial institutions to report the extent to which LGBTQ-owned businesses are applying for and accessing credit, he said.

He added that ”without the kind of rigorous reporting required by my legislation, we have no enforceable means of holding the financial system accountable for serving the credit needs of LGBTQ enterprises.”to the U.S. economy every year and create “tens of thousands of new jobs in every sector,” Justin Nelson, president and co-founder of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement.

“For them to succeed, LGBT business owners must have unfettered access to capital and credit, which the data gathered by this act will support,” Nelson said. “For our national economy to thrive, all business owners from every diverse community must be included, studied, and supported at every level of government as they are in private enterprise.

 

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