Cochran Honored By Opportunity Finance Network

Left to right: Former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) President and CEO Lisa Mensah, Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), OFN Board Member and Hope Enterprise Corp. Senior Vice President Pearl Wicks, and Renaissance Community Loan Fund CFO Chuck Wall.

Tuesday evening, Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), a national network of community development financial institutions (CDFIs), honored Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Thad Cochran (R-MS), and Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL-5) with the CDFI Congressional Champion Award.

The award reception came on the eve of OFN’s annual Advocacy Day, when CDFIs from across the country came to Washington, D.C. to meet with members of Congress to discuss how CDFIs invest in their communities and create access to capital.
Senator Baldwin has strongly championed and supported community development and CDFIs throughout her career in public service, and most recently as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Senator Capito, as Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, has been a strong advocate for programs supporting rural communities and has included including the New Markets Tax Credit Program and the CDFI Fund among them.
Senator Cochran, as the second most senior Republican Senator and Chair of the Appropriations Committee, has long been a steward of bipartisan support and funding for CDFI programs, including the CDFI Fund and the New Markets Tax Credit Program.
Representative Quigley, as Ranking Member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, has been a champion of CDFIs, serving not only his district, but also nationwide.
“Creating economic opportunity in rural, urban, and Native communities is truly a bipartisan issue,” said Lisa Mensah, President and CEO of OFN. “The four leaders we are honoring are strong advocates for CDFIs and the CDFI Fund. Millions of Americans in communities excluded from the financial mainstream now have access to responsible financial products and services because of their stewardship. On behalf of the CDFI industry, I am proud to recognize these members of Congress for their efforts.”
OFN member CDFIs are performance-oriented, responsible investors that partner across public and private sectors to finance opportunities in low-income, low-wealth, and under-resourced communities. For more than 30 years, CDFIs have successfully leveraged public resources to contribute to economic growth in markets that mainstream financing does not reach.

Honoree Quotes:

· “Community development financial institutions support local small business job creation in communities throughout Wisconsin. The demand for CDFIs is growing and I’m proud to work across the aisle and stand with Opportunity Finance Network to support economic development in communities that need it most,” said Senator Baldwin, a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
· “Creating economic opportunity in our rural communities is critical to West Virginia’s future. One of my top priorities has been to promote policies that spur new investment and boost growth in these areas, and I am grateful to the Opportunity Finance Network for this recognition,” said Senator Capito, chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.
· “I appreciate that the CDFI Fund helps local organizations attract greater private investment in underserved areas of the country, including many areas of Mississippi. CDFI Fund capital serves as an incentive to help increase lending and investment, which is critical to promoting economic development where it is most needed,” said Senator Cochran, chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
· “Opportunity Finance Network has been an indispensable representative of the CDFI community for over four decades, and I am honored to be recognized as one of their 2017 CDFI Congressional Champions. As the Ranking Democrat on the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, I remain committed to providing the over 1,000 CDFIs operating nationwide with the funding and resources they need and deserve to continue fostering economic opportunity and revitalization in our most underserved communities,” said Representative Quigley, ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.

Courtesy of the Office of Senator Thad Cochran.
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