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Ritchie Torres is proposing legislation that will include LGBTQ businesses in credit regulations
Ritchie Torres, at an event for activist Ady Barkan in Parkchester, the Bronx on August 7, 2018. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), the first out gay Afro-Latinx member of Congress, is introducing legislation that will explicitly include LGBTQ-owned businesses in federal regulations for financial institutions regarding data and other information they compile.
The LGBTQ Business Equal Credit Enforcement and Investment Act seeks to amend section 1071 of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which requires financial institutions to maintain information on credit applications submitted by minority and women-owned small businesses to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). This is how the Bureau and other government entities enforce fair lending rules and track business and community development.
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If Torres’ proposal passes, the bureau will extend those uses for LGBTQ-owned businesses as well.
Torres told NBC News , “I partnered with the LGBT Chamber of Commerce to persuade America’s largest city to adopt a certification program for LGBTQ enterprises,” referring to the recent change enacted in New York City earlier this year .
He pushed the Big Apple to include LGBTQ businesses, and he introduced a legislative proposal in 2019 as a member […]