PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter will lead a new committee at the U.S, Treasury Department. The Advisory Committee on Racial Equity is charged with finding ways to reduce economic disparities for communities of color.
Nutter admits the Treasury Department may seem an unlikely agency to pursue racial equity.
“Our relationship with the Treasury Department is usually about writing a check to the IRS, so they’re not necessarily looked at as an outward facing organization,” he said.
Nutter, who is also a professor of urban and public affairs at Columbia University, credits Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen with realizing the department has a role to play in advancing economic equality.
“Access to capital, how the banking industry functions and interacts with — or at times interferes — with people's ability to get loans, start businesses,” he explained.
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Nutter said the committee will be looking at financial inclusion, housing stability, federal supplier diversity, economic development, or any other way it finds to lower barriers for full participation by communities of color in the U.S. economy.
Nutter served nearly 15 years in City Council before his tenure as mayor from 2008-16. He and the other 24 members of the committee have been appointed for two-year terms and will work with Treasury Department Counselor for Racial Equity Janis Bowdler.