On Nov. 3, LDF submitted comment to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) strongly opposing the Interim Final Rule (“FR) on Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise in Airport Concessions Program Implementation Modifications. For over 40 years, the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) and the Airport Concession Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (ACDBE) Programs have served as critical tools to combat and remedy discrimination in government contracts for transportation and airport concessions, respectively.
While the facts and the law governing the program have not changed, the DOT’s Interim Final Rule now proposes to (1) eliminate race- and gender-based presumptions of social and economic disadvantage, now forcing firms to individually prove these disadvantages; and (2) immediately suspend existing DBE certifications, compelling firms to undergo burdensome revaluation to recertify any DBE or ACDBE that meets the new certification standards and to decertify any DBE or ACDBE that does not meet the new certification standards before their participation can count toward program goals. The DOT’s new rule, issued without a prior opportunity for public comment, threatens to undermine equity in federal programs.
LDF’s comment to DOT urges the agency to withdraw the new rule in its entirety and restore the prior version of its rules. Recognizing that federal agencies under the Trump administration have not consistently followed long-established protocols for issuing such rules, LDF called on DOT to at least revise the rule to require continued data collection and allow states to provide targeted programming to DBEs and ACDBEs to meet their participation goals. The comment notes that these changes threaten to undermine efforts to ensure that federal taxpayer dollars are not distributed in a discriminatory manner.
Read the full letter here.
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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.
