Reflections from Orientation to the US Treasury Committee on Race and Equity
By Deputy Director Nicole Anand
Recently, I was selected to sit on the inaugural US Treasury Committee on Race and Equity (TACRE). I flew to Washington DC for an orientation to the committee and to attend The Freedman’s Bank Forum where the committee was announced. It's a great honor to represent Inclusive Action and the people we serve on TACRE, and it's also a great responsibility. I want to share why I'm excited about this opportunity and what it means for us, our partners, and the communities we serve.
A New Era of Community Voice and Structural Change
While I toured the US Treasury building, I saw every Secretary’s portrait - starting with Hamilton, all the way to Lew. At that moment it clicked for me that we are a part of a new era, and that, it is the first time in history that the two signatures on our one dollar bill will be women. The first woman to be Secretary is Janet Yellen, and the first Native woman to be Treasurer is Lynn Malerba.
What’s more is that TACRE marks the first concrete investment by the US Treasury in structural change to address racial inequities. Secretary Yellen, Deputy Secretary Adeyemo, and Racial Equity Counselor Janis Bowlder created TACRE and it's a big deal.
Within the US Treasury, TACRE is one of the only structural ways communities are at the table as key decision makers in Federal fiscal policy. The US Treasury is unlike its comparable institutions, including the Federal Reserve and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), because it does not have "boots on the ground". There are no field offices and no community representatives.
TACRE’s mission is the first-of-its-kind in the US Treasury, with an aim to change how our fiscal policy serves low-income, BIPOC, and immigrant communities. It’s a real chance to alter the inner-workings and trajectory of financial programs designed at the national level that have historically overlooked populations at the margins, and have resulted in perpetual under-resourcing and persistent harm to communities of color.
TACRE is chaired by Michael Nutter, the former Mayor of Philadelphia, and Vice Chaired by Felicia Wong of the Roosevelt Institute. We are 25 members, a mix of leaders of traditional financial institutions, philanthropy, academia, chambers of commerce, economic alliances, non-profits, and CDFIs. My esteemed colleagues on the committee blew me away with their experience, intelligence and wit. We are all coming at this from different experiences and perspectives and that's what really energizes me – I'm a true believer that everyone has a role to play in systems change.
A Collective Commitment to Economic Justice
My colleagues and I are appointed to TACRE for the next two years and we will meet quarterly. We will not be a status quo, passive committee, developing a report at the end of the term. We will be actively identifying opportunities for changing policies and programs along the way, and introducing ways to do it in real-time. Our initial conversations have led us to start exploring a few intervention areas, including: creating tax credits geared to communities of color, modernizing US Treasury services to better serve low-income communities, and introducing incentive mechanisms to crowd in private sector capital for communities of color.
One thing I want to make clear: Inclusive Action does not sit at this table alone.
We’re committed to building equitable communities in Los Angeles, and we recognize that local commitments require national influence. We know many of our partners feel the same way. That’s why we’re committed to engaging partners on a regular basis to align on our community needs and translate them into Federal policy.
In an attempt to guide our minds and hearts, I’ll leave us with a few budding questions. These go beyond TACRE and orient us toward the national financial ecosystem that shapes the high and increasing levels of income inequality we seek to eliminate at the local level:
Federal and State funds and programs intended for those we serve, such as the US Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI), are often not visible to those of us working locally and in community. How do we influence these programs - from design to implementation - so that our communities are the true beneficiaries of them?
My colleague, Prince Osemwengie wrote about the Community Reinvestment Act, a law designed to reduce the racial wealth gap and together we’ve been talking to partners about a California CRA. What are we doing to connect up the programs across Federal agencies - like the Federal Reserve and US Treasury - to better serve our communities? How might TACRE complement the Federal Reserve’s CRA?
It was a true honor to have Vice President Kamala Harris join us at Freedman's Bank Forum and give these powerful remarks. While there, she announced the Economic Opportunity Coalition, a new collaboration with private sector institutions to support communities of color. The push for the private sector to transfer wealth into underinvested communities has been tried before. How do we make this different? What can we do to make the transfer of wealth stick?
While our work at Inclusive Action is local, our influence at the federal level is critical to our ability to effectively reduce the racial wealth gap, preserve communities, and eliminate income inequality in Los Angeles. With my appointment to TACRE, we hope to bring local lived experience to the top, and ensure that those who remain invisible to some are finally making the decisions that directly affect them.