EIP’s Coalition of the Committed is united in the belief that America does better when more people have a fair shot at the American Dream, and we are excited to share with you the two latest signers of the EIP Pledge.
METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY
During a ceremony last week at a subway station in New York City, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Chair Janno Lieber signed the EIP Pledge, bringing the nation’s largest public transit agency and a national leader in small business lending into our Coalition of the Committed.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s announcement of the signing stated that MTA's pledge affirms that it will ensure participation on at least $1 billion of work by Minority- and Women-owned (MWBE) or Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) firms every year, award larger contracts to small businesses, expand the pool of MW/DBE firms the MTA works with and increase discretionary contracts for design and engineering MWBE firms by 20 percent over the next five years.
Video of the event is available here.
LENDISTRY
Lendistry CEO Everett K. Sands also recently signed the EIP Pledge. We know how critical access to capital is for Historically Underutilized Businesses, and as a minority-led Community Development Financial Institution, Lendistry is the first financial firm in our coalition and is dedicated to providing economic opportunities and progressive growth for underserved urban and rural small business borrowers and their communities.
For more information about Lendistry, visit lendistry.com or contact Uriel Arguelles at uriel.arguelles@lendistry.com.
As industry leaders, we also know that creating opportunities for Historically Underutilized Businesses increases competition and delivers more value from investments in infrastructure – for our public agencies and for the communities they serve.
EIP’s Pledge has now been signed by 58 CEOs of transit authorities, airports, ports, water districts, industry associations, and engineering and financial firms from across the country, and the White House has directly called upon Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grantees to sign the Pledge.
We are grateful for the commitment of EIP’s coalition. In contrast to the increasing legal attacks on statutory programs that invest in infrastructure, we represent a voluntary CEO-level moral and ethical commitment to do the right thing that will help us continue making progress no matter what.
