Researchers and activists representing national minority organizations and progressive public policy groups urged members of Congress during a congressional hearing Wednesday to target specific programs and funding to alleviate the disproportionate impact the recession is having on African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asian-Americans.

Citing evidence that minority unemployment and home foreclosure rates continue to dramatically outpace that of Whites, several people, including the congressional committee chair who presided over the hearing, questioned whether stimulus funding and federal programs to help homeowners avoid foreclosures are helping minorities at all.

“As our nation lays down the tracks of economic revitalization, we must be sure that every American has boarded the train toward recovery,” said U.S. Congressman Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.). “Unfortunately, recent reports indicate that not only are certain racial and ethnic-specific groups being left behind, but many never received a ticket to board the ‘recovery train’ to start off with.”

Towns, the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, convened the hearing entitled “The Silent Depression: How are Minorities Faring in the Economic Downturn,” which heard from representatives from the National Urban League, the National Congress of American Indians, the National Council of La Raza and the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development. He pointed out that minorities have been hit with higher unemployment and a greater likelihood of having a high-interest rate mortgage, and suggested there may be “a need for congressional re-examination of financial services regulation in general, and the home mortgage business in particular.”

“As indicated in a report by the Center for American Progress, when borrowing from 14 of the nation’s top banks, such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo, in 2006, 17.8 percent of Caucasian borrowers were given higher-priced mortgages, while 30.9 percent of Hispanics and a shocking 41.5 percent of African-Americans received them,” Towns said. “There is evidence that African-Americas and Hispanics may have been targeted for these pricier loans.”

Dr. Christian E. Weller, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for American Progress Action Fund, told committee members that research demonstrates that minorities contend with structural problems, such as labor market segmentation, credit market steering, and discrimination, that for many years has led to disproportionately higher unemployment rates and poverty.