By Globe Staff

Congresswoman Barbara Lee urged local African American business owners to pursue federal contract dollars because affirmative action has not yet been undermined in Washington, D.C., unlike in Sacramento.
    Lee said Congress in August approved the largest transportation improvement bill in history — $286 billion — from gas taxes.

   “My district received $13 million, and I have met with agencies and told them to fully embrace affirmative action. These are your tax dollars. Go after this business,” said Lee, who was the keynote speaker at the third annual membership luncheon for the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce at the Oakland Airport Hilton.
    Lee said she is also fighting for more Small Business Administration funds and technical assistance to help small firms understand and compete for complex federal contracts.
    She said that blacks have been hindered by the passage of Prop. 209 in 1996, which ended affirmative action in UC admissions and state contracts and hiring.
    “The year after 209 passed, the law school at UC Berkeley accepted 14 blacks out of a class of 270, but only one black student enrolled,” she said. “This year, UCLA enrolled fewer than 100 black students, the smallest number since 1973.”
    Lee said the value of contracts given to all minority firms from CalTrans fell from $102 million to $75 million after the proposition’s passage, and that the share of contracts for minorities fell from 16 percent in 1996 to 8 percent today.
   “Black businesses are also impacted most by crime, which is an economic and social issue, not just a police issue,” said Lee. “The solution is not putting more people in jail, but giving our children a quality education and getting them to stay in school. Our children deserve a decent future.”
    Lee said a Harvard study has indicated that the cost of Oakland’s high school dropout rate of 52 percent has been $14 billion in lost wages, crime and jail time.
    More than 25 percent of people under age 18 in Oakland are living below the federal poverty level, and the jobless rate for black males is three times higher than the rate for whites, said Lee.
    Hundreds attended the Chamber event, whose sponsors included Clorox, Wal-Mart, the Port of Oakland and Bank of the West. The Chamber was founded by former Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb and Bishop Bob Jackson of Acts Full Gospel Church, who urged non-members to join.
    During the event, the Chamber honored Carol Williams, whose growing advertising agency has offices in Oakland and Chicago; Ed Fitzpatrick of Coliseum Lexus; and Michael Campbell of CFK Associates, a specialty foods and wine marketer.
    Williams urged attendees to “hire Oaklanders.”