September 19, 2018 The Skanner MINORITY BUSINESS ENTERPRISE EDITION Page 5
Special Business Edition
MBE 2018
Federal Ad Spending with Black-owned Firms Dismal; NNPA Demands Action
By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire
ver the past five fiscal
years from 2013 to 2017,
federal
government
agencies have spent
approximately $5 billion in
advertising, but a minute
share—$327 million—went to
minority-owned businesses,
according to a long-awaited
report from the Government
Accountability Office (GAO).
The federal government
serves as the largest advertis-
er in the country.
While non-minority-owned
businesses continue to rake
in billions of dollars in federal
advertising money, Hispan-
ic-owned businesses received
just $192 million over five
years—or about $38.4 million
per year.
Black-owned businesses net-
ted just $51 million—or rough-
ly $10 million per year over the
five years covered in the new
report, which was prepared
over a nine-month period
beginning last October. Con-
gresswoman Eleanor Holmes
Norton (D-D.C.) and other
members of the Congressional
Black Caucus (CBC) requested
the report.
Native
American-owned
businesses were the recipi-
O
ents of $50 million in adver-
tising spending over the past
five fiscal years while Asian
American-owned enterprises
received $31 million over the
same period, according to the
report.
Ethnicities classified as “oth-
er” received $3 million.
“Today, the National News-
paper Publishers Association
(NNPA) and the National As-
sociation of Hispanic Publi-
cations (NAHP) received the
long-awaited report from the
United States GAO, a study that
was triggered by the NNPA
and NAHP, working with Con-
gresswoman Eleanor Holmes
Norton’s office, members of
the Congressional Black Cau-
cus, and the Congressional
Hispanic Caucus,” said NNPA
President and CEO Dr. Benja-
min F. Chavis, Jr. “This factual
report exposes gross, racial
discrimination and the refus-
al of the federal agencies cit-
ed in the report to be serious
about diversity and inclusion
with respect to annual federal
spending on advertising.”
Dr. Chavis continued: “For
the government to admit, to-
day, on the record, that in the
last five fiscal years, nearly $5
billion was spent on advertis-
ing and yet only a total of $327
million was actually spent on
FREDDIE ALLEN/AMG/NNPA
GAO Report Finds Federal Agencies Spend Very Little of their Advertising Budgets with Black-owned Firms
NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., speaks outside of the U.S. Capitol during a joint press conference with the
NNPA and the National Association Hispanic Publications on Capitol Hill in March 2016. D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes
Norton (far left) joined the press conference to call for the GAO report to examine how much federal agencies spend on
advertising with minority-owned firms.
minority-owned businesses…
this report is not surprising
nor is it shocking, but it does
reveal the consequences of
systemic racial discrimination
in both Republican and Demo-
cratic administrations when it
comes to federal advertising
spending.”
NNPA Chairman Dorothy
Leavell wasn’t surprised by
the GAO report, but she still
expressed disappointment in
the federal government.
Leavell, who is also the pub-
lisher of the Crusader news-
papers in Chicago and Gary,
Ind., called the federal govern-
ment’s current level of adver-
tising with Black-owned firms
“atrocious.”
“We have the Census coming
up, HHS with Open Enroll-
ment, and what they’ve spent
with us on a scale of 1 to 10 is
less than 1,” Leavell said. “How
do you get this government to
be responsive to its citizens; to
give them information; to work
with our businesses, and to do
all of the other things that fed-
eral agencies should be doing?”
The Department of Defense
(DOD), the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS),
See SPENDING on page 6