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And thank you. This is our body politic.

I'm the creator and host, Farai Chidea.

Here on the show, we talk with women of color across the political spectrum and from diverse backgrounds.

My next guest has been in Congress for almost three decades.

Nydia Velazquez represents New York's 7th Congressional District in the House.

She is the chairwoman of the House Small Business Committee and senior member of the Financial Services Committee.

As a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, she's working on accountability for energy infrastructure in Puerto Rico, where she's originally from.

She and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are also co-sponsors of the Puerto Rico's

Self-Determination Act, which she says would let Puerto Ricans determine their own political

future. Representative Velasquez, welcome. Thank you for having me. I want to go through a little

information that came out in a recent report. It was the Small Business Trends Alliance, and it found that fewer small

business owners of color felt supported by the government's COVID relief plans, and that even

though a majority of small business owners of color voted for President Biden, 45% said they

didn't belong to or didn't feel represented by any existing U.S. political party.

Now, women of color are more likely to be small business owners than white women are compared to white men.

...