A year before the Trump administration eliminated funding for a nationwide network of minority business centers, the Biden administration had ended such funding for the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as part of an investigation into another grant to the organization.
The El Paso Minority Business Development Agency Business Center, operated by the Hispanic Chamber through federal grants, ended its program in July 2024. The center opened in 2008.
President Donald Trump in March issued an executive order that terminated funding for the Minority Business Development Agency, or MBDA, which administered the grants under the U.S. Department of Commerce. Funding cuts began in April. The MBDA helped minority-owned businesses get loans and contracts, and provided services including training in financial management and planning, bidding and procurement, and networking and marketing.
The Hispanic Chamber in April announced it had reached a settlement with the Department of Justice stemming from an investigation into a separate grant for its Minority Women’s Enterprise Diversity Center, but has provided little information about the nature of the investigation or the amount of the settlement.
Chamber officials confirmed to El Paso Matters that the Department of Commerce terminated its MBDA grant funding in July 2024 after questions arose over the women’s enterprise grant applications in 2018 and 2019. The DOJ did not respond to El Paso Matters request for comment.
“The El Paso Hispanic Chamber, as part of its mission of helping El Paso small businesses, continues to do the work of providing those same services that were being fulfilled by the MBDA Business Center,” Frank Spencer III, chair of the chamber board, said in email. He added that the chamber’s Growth Solutions and Connections Center provides those services.
The Department of Commerce’s MBDA website shows it awarded the El Paso program $1.3 million in grant funding in June 2021 that was slated to end in June 2026, according to the grant summary tracker.
Spencer said MBDA funds did not have to be paid back when the grant was terminated.
“Regarding future federal grant opportunities, the El Paso Hispanic Chamber is waiting for any new information as it becomes available from the new government administration,” Spencer said.
Spencer said that using the chamber’s general funds, staff who were operating the MBDA services were transferred into general chamber operations assisting El Paso small businesses.
The Hispanic Chamber’s tax forms for 2021 to 2023, the most recent years available, show that government grants accounted for 65% of the organization’s $6.9 million in revenue for those three years.
Under a March 14 executive order, the Trump administration terminated the $68 million allocation for the MBDA, according to a tracker published April 29 by Democratic members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.
The loss of federal funding is one of several challenges facing the Hispanic Chamber, which has long been a resource for small businesses in El Paso. Long-time CEO Cindy Ramos-Davidson stepped down earlier this year due to a battle with cancer.
The post El Paso Hispanic Chamber loses federal grants amid investigation appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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