Greetings!

We hope you're enjoying your summer and staying cool in the heat! We’re just over halfway done with the year and we're thrilled to bring you the latest Small Business Newsletter. Over the past few months, Congressman Kim has enjoyed visits with local businesses, conversations about how to best support their needs, and securing them support from Congress! We hope everyone could help celebrate National Small Business Week a few weeks ago as well. It is such an important chance to celebrate our local entrepreneurs and thriving business community.

We look forward to continuing this work to have our local small business communities’ backs the rest of the year. As always, we hope this quarterly update, resources, and opportunities are helpful to you!

Congressman Kim Helps Secure Millions to Protect Workers’ Hard-Earned Retirement Benefits

Workers anywhere in the country and in any industry should be able to rely on the retirement benefits they worked day in and day out earning. Through the American Rescue Plan, Congressman Kim helped create the Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program to avert a pension crisis threatening the retirement security of workers, retirees, and their families. We were proud to announce recently that this program has helped protect the pensions of thousands of local workers across the printing, transportation, service, and food industries, including:

$545.6 million to cover 24,288 participants in the CWA/ITU Negotiated Pension Plan (CWA/ITU Plan), based in Mount Laurel
$12.4 million to cover 508 participants in the Pension Plan of Local 102 (Teamsters Local 102 Plan), based in Cherry Hill
$279.3 million to cover over 10,000 participants in the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 152 Retail Meat Pension Plan (UFCW Local 152 Plan), based in Mount Laurel

With this assistance, we are proud to stand by our local workers, their hard-earned retirement, and continue to defend every Americans’ right to work and retire with dignity. After serving as New Jersey's sole representative on the House Small Business Committee during his initial two terms in Congress, Congressman Kim continues to prioritize workers' interests and has championed the passage of the American Rescue Plan and co-sponsored the Butch Lewis Act, aimed at addressing the nation’s pension crisis and safeguarding workers’ benefits.

Congressman Kim was proud to help create this funding opportunity through the American Rescue Plan and continues his work to defend workers’ hard-earned retirement benefits.

Congressman Kim Reintroduces Legislation to Support Veteran-Owned Businesses

This May, Congressman Kim was proud to help reintroduce his bipartisan Better Utilizing Infrastructure for Lasting Development of Veterans Businesses Act, referred to in short as the BUILD Veterans Businesses Act. This legislation would create a new program for veteran owned small businesses to win up to 3 percent of federal-aid highway and public transportation contracts. As we continue to see once-in-a lifetime funding made possible from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this legislation would help lift up veteran entrepreneurs who have the unique technical skills and knowledge to tackle these infrastructure projects.

The BUILD Act would go a long way to lift up our vets as we tackle our country's infrastructure needs!

Supporting AANHPI Business Owners

Earlier this year, Congressman Kim helped secure $2.5 million in grant funding for National ACE to expand Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) businesses’ access to capital and loan opportunities.

In April, Congressman Kim joined National ACE for a roundtable focused on uplifting AANHPI entrepreneurs and diverse business community. From connecting people to federal grants or expanding access to capital, the Congressman is focused on looking out for their unique needs and the long-term success of minority-owned businesses.

Congressman Kim Helps Secure Grant Funding to Support Local Farms

We are proud to be able to bring federal dollars directly back to support unique local businesses that are invaluable to our local economy and our communities as a whole. Recently, Congressman Kim announced exciting funding for a couple local farms, including:

Two River Gourmet Mushrooms was selected to receive $100,000 in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Organic Marketing Development Grant program to help the farm keep up with increasing market demand for specialty mushrooms.
Moonshot Farm, a New Jersey family owned farm in East Windsor, was awarded a $200,000 grant to go toward recruitment and retention of their agricultural workforce.

ICYMI: Small Business Webinar Series

This Spring, Congressman Kim hosted a Small Business Webinar Series where he was joined by SBA representatives to discuss funding and federal contracting, SBA assistance programs, and specific resources for women, minority, and veteran owned businesses.

If you were not able to attend the webinars, don’t worry, you can watch Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 here!

ICYMI: Congressman Kim Hosts Computer Security and Fraud Prevention Webinar

Our office was joined by an expert panel for a webinar covering how to protect yourself from fraud and scams that are sadly on the rise. Our conversation covered SNAP skimming, catching online scams, ID theft, and more!

Catch up here!

RESOURCE: Inflation Reduction Act Tax Credits and Rebates

Our office launched a webpage to bring you up-to-date information on how the Inflation Reduction Act could help you save money on your taxes.

Congressman Kim was proud to help pass the Inflation Reduction Act into law to invest in American energy production and combat climate change more than any bill in American history. Through this, millions of New Jerseyans and businesses are already eligible for tax credits that will make it easier and more affordable for them to upgrade to more efficient appliances, purchase an electric vehicle, install residential clean energy systems, and save money on their energy bills. All the tax credits are available as of January 2023, but it may take 1-2 years for the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to implement some of the rebate programs.

Learn more on our website here!

Event Spotlight: Info Session on Small Business Tax Credits

On Wednesday, July 17th at 10 AM, the Small Business Administration and the Internal Revenue Service are hosting an information session on tax credits available to small businesses! Many of these could go a long way to saving businesses money while looking after our environment. Register here!

Upcoming SBA Events: Don’t Miss Out!

The Small Business Administration offers a variety of free programming covering subjects from business best practices to how to access SBA assistance. You can search through all their upcoming events, filter for events run by our local SBA district, and sign-up here.

Upcoming online programming (EST):

Thursday, July 11th 11AM-12PM - Learn How to Compose a Strong Business Plan Webinar
Thursday, July 11th 12PM-1PM - VetCert: Federal Certification for Veteran Owned Small Businesses
Thursday, July 11th 1PM-230PM - Small Business 8(a) Federal Contracting Certification Overview
Thursday, July 11th 2PM-3PM - Unleash your Business Potential: Mastering SBA Programs and Services Webinar
Thursday, July 11th 4PM-5PM - Two Aspects of a Well-Run Business and SBA Resources
Monday, July 15th 1230PM-130PM - Get Funding to Start or Grow your Business
Tuesday, July 16th 9AM-11AM - Suitability and Marketing for Federal Government Contracting
Tuesday, July 16th 12PM-1PM - Funding your Business: Let's talk 504 Loans
Tuesday, July 16th 1PM-2PM - Getting Started with your Business Plan Brown Bag Lunch and Learn
Tuesday, July 16th 2PM-330PM - Woman Owned Small Business Program
Tuesday, July 16th 2PM-3PM - For Small Businesses: Grow your Sales through Trade
Wednesday, July 17th 1030AM-1130AM - Basics of SBA's 8(a) Business Development Program and SAM Registration
Wednesday, July 17th 12PM-1PM SBA - Hosted Webinar: Introduction to Federal Contracting
Thursday, July 18th 1030AM-1230PM - How to Win City, State, and Local Government Contracts
Thursday, July 18th 11AM-1230PM - Translating Federal Contracting "Government-ese"
Thursday, July 18th 1130AM-1230PM - What Documentation is Required when Applying for an SBA Loan?
Thursday, July 18th 2Pm-3PM - SAM/gov Registration
Friday, July 19th 11AM-1145AM - Federal Contracting Fridays
Friday, July 19th 12PM-1PM - SBA Hour with Veterans
Monday, July 22nd 11AM-1PM - Basic Business Start up with the SBA
Tuesday, July 23rd 10-1130AM - SBA Loan Programs
Tuesday, July 23rd 10-11AM - SBA and IRS Summer Webinar Series: SBA's Resource-SBDC and IRS Business Structures
Tuesday, July 23rd 11AM-1230PM - Global Trade Exporting -Your Chance to Maximize your Biz Opportunities
Tuesday, July 23rd 2PM-3PM - Women-Owned Small Business Certification Program with Partners
Tuesday, July 23rd 2PM-3PM - FDIC/SBA Money Smart for Small Business-Tax Planning and Reporting

Join SBA’s Q&A Sessions

The U.S. Small Business Administration Eastern Pennsylvania District Office invites entrepreneurs and small businesses to bi-weekly exclusive virtual Q&A sessions focusing on the various services, resources, and programs offered by SBA. This occurs virtually on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at 12 PM.

You can join via Microsoft Teams or by calling +1-202-765-1264 and enter code 485 655 439#.

We Can Help Organizations and Nonprofits with Federal Grants!

Congressman Kim is proud to work with people in the community to support their pursuit of federal funding opportunities. If your organization or nonprofit is applying for a federal grant, our office has a dedicated Grants Director who is available to submit a letter of support on your behalf, connect you with a federal grant liaison to answer application questions, obtain feedback about a previously denied grant to strengthen your next application, or work with congressional liaisons to research potential federal grant opportunities.

If you are interested in receiving our monthly Guide to Grants newsletter with available nonprofit and governmental funding opportunities and grant-specific webinars from Congressman Kim's office, please contact us at 202-225-4765 and ask to be added, or sign up here.

Contact Us!

If we can help you access these programs or opportunities, please do not hesitate to reach out to our office here.

Our office also sends regular updates for veterans, seniors, federal grant opportunities, and a weekly wrap-up newsletter. Sign-up for any of these additional newsletters here.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve you everyday!

Sincerely,

The Office of Congressman Andy Kim

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