(April 24, 2008) Washington, D.C. – As part of Small Business Week in the Congress, Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34) (shown in pink blazer) welcomed members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) small business community – including two organizations based in her district – to our nation’s capital to speak with members of Congress about the business issues that matter most to their members.

The participants included Mr. Kerry Doi (shown in center photo on right), who is the President and CEO of the Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment (PACE) based in Downtown, Los Angeles in the 34th District and Mr. Cooke Sunoo (shown in third photo wearing a red tie on left), who is the Director of the API Small Business Development Program, headquartered in Little Tokyo in Downtown in the 34th District.

PACE was founded in 1976 to address the employment and job training needs of the Asian Pacific Islander communities in the Los Angeles area. The agency has a workforce of 350 employees who are multi-lingual and multi-cultural to meet various needs of its constituent communities. The API Small Business Development Program assists in the development of small and micro businesses in Los Angeles. The program places an emphasis on assisting Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai and Filipino low-income immigrant business communities. Click here to read the full testimony of Mr. Doi and Mr. Cooke.

The forum highlighted the importance of assisting AAPI entrepreneurs to access capital needed to start and grow their businesses. The panel also emphasized the need to expand contracting opportunities and business counseling services to the AAPI small business community. The day before the forum, the House passed a measure to help small businesses. HR 5819 reauthorizes the Small Business Information Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBTT) programs. Both programs give grants to small businesses so that they can conduct research and development and roll-out of new ideas and projects. The measure also includes provisions to specifically help minority-owned businesses to access capital.

In addition to Congresswoman Roybal-Allard, the other members of Congress in attendance at the forum included: U.S. Sens. John Kerry (MA) and Ben Cardin (MD); and Reps. Mike Honda (CA-15), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chair and forum organizer, Xavier Becerra (CA-31), Bobby Scott (VA-3), and Eni Faleomavaega (American Samoa).