Sen. Menendez talks business

IRVINGTON — U.S. Senator Bob Menendez toured the Irvington IHOP, a Black woman-owned business, and met with minority business owners to hear about their businesses and the challenges they face, as well as to learn how the federal government can better support minority-owned businesses.

“As a strong supporter of small businesses across New Jersey, it was an honor to hear directly from Black business owners – especially during National Black Business Month,” Menendez said. “Listening to their stories of success and their first-hand accounts of the challenges they are facing allows me to go to Washington and work to meet the needs of New Jersey’s minority-owned businesses.”

The senator met with Adenah Bayoh, a minority small business owner who runs three IHOPs in Essex and Passaic counties, and toured the Irvington IHOP location alongside local Black business owners, including Syreeta Thompson, Butram Berry, Mujahid Robinson, Walter Green, Ezekiel Olaniyi, and Daniel Bocage.

Menendez’s visits came during National Black Business Month, which began in 2004 when John William Templeton, president and executive editor of eAccess Corp, and Frederick E. Jordan, an engineering executive, pursued the shared goal of achieving increased equity and inclusion through changes in policy that most impacted Black entrepreneurs throughout the country.

Menendez has been a leader in supporting small businesses, particularly minority-owned small businesses, in a continued effort to uplift New Jerseyans and the state’s economy.

In June, Menendez and U.S. Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez, a democrat from New York, introduced the bicameral Small Business Financing Disclosure Act. The bill aims to protect small business borrowers from predatory lenders and small business financing options carrying unfair terms and conditions.

The bill would ensure safeguards already required in consumer lending, through the Truth in Lending Act are extended to small business borrowers.

In March, Menendez joined the Biden Administration in announcing the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s approval of efforts to expand access to capital for small businesses under the American Rescue Plan’s State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI), including New Jersey’s SSBCI funding plan for up to $255.1 million.

The American Rescue Plan reauthorized and expanded SSBCI, which was originally established in 2010 and was highly successful in increasing access to capital for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

In July 2021, Menendez chaired a Senate Banking Subcommittee Hearing to explore how to best protect New Jersey businesses from the economic impacts of a future pandemic or national emergency.

During the hearing, the subcommittee heard testimony from a group of experts, insurance providers, and business leaders – including Adenah Bayoh – to explore whether Congress should consider a pandemic risk insurance program to limit the economic damage of future global catastrophic events.

  Irvington, Robert Menendez