Good morning and thank you all for joining us today.  I am so excited to be back in Detroit!

Thank you, Mayor Duggan for welcoming us again to your beautiful city and thank you to Representative Lawrence and Senators Stabenow and Peters for all the work you do in Washington to deliver for the people of Michigan.  I’d also like to thank Lt. Gov Gilchrist and Gov. Whitmer for working tirelessly with this administration to build a better America and a better Michigan.

Well, we are here today because President Biden and your elected representatives know all too well the pain you are feeling here on main street. We are all feeling the pinch of inflated prices at the gas pump and the grocery store.

But I can assure you that since day one of his administration, President Biden and VP Harris have been working overtime to ease that pain and ensure that every American is able to recover from this crisis.

At the same time, we must recognize that this crisis did not impact every community equally. Minority communities, as well as small and minority-owned businesses, were hit especially hard.

That’s why the Department of Commerce, and the entire Biden-Harris administration, has put equity front and center in everything we do, and that’s what we are doing here today.

Today’s summit aims to provide solutions to diverse suppliers and minority-owned businesses by highlighting capital access, procurement, and contracting resources available through the federal government to help ensure supply chain resilience.

Specifically, we hope to focus on the work the federal government is already doing to improve the lives and livelihoods of the people here, as well as share critical resources for entrepreneurs and job creators in Detroit and across the state of Michigan. From helping small and minority owned businesses gain access to capital through the MBDA and SBA, to the recent announcement from the Treasury Department and MBDA that they are teaming up to deploy $100 million of the State Small Business Credit Initiative Technical Assistance funding.

Because we know that we will only recover from this crisis, if we do so together, and if we do so equitably. And that means leaning into America’s greatest competitive advantage—our diversity.

I’ll leave you with this. The Kellogg foundation recently found that by closing the racial equity gap, the U.S. GDP could grow by $8 trillion in growth by 2050. Think about that. Our economy is about $23 trillion, so think about what an increase like that would mean for this city, this state, and our country.

We know there is a lot of work to be done, but we are confident that we can get it done together, and the work we do here today is exactly what is needed to get us there. Thank you.

With that, I will turn it over to Senator Stabenow.