The Justice Department has “reevaluated" its stance on key legislation — and it could have a devastating effect on women and minority owned businesses, according to a Washington Post report.
“In a motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, the Justice Department said that a Transportation Department program that has carved out an estimated $37 billion for minority- and women-owned businesses violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution,” the Post wrote.
If a settlement is approved, “the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program (DBE) will be prohibited from awarding contracts based on race and sex, effectively ending its founding mission.”
DBE was created in the 1960s and '70s to subvert any race or sex based discrimination. It is the longest-running affirmative action program in the country.
“Over the past five decades, the federal government imposed a policy of race discrimination in the roadbuilding industry,” said Dan Lennington, deputy counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.
Lennington, who represents the plaintiffs, claimed, “Thousands of workers and small businesses have been victimized, and hundreds of billions have been spent, distorting the market and inflating construction costs for the taxpayers. That ends now.”
DBE programs are funded by the U.S. government but administered by states. According to the Post, the federal government can earmark at least 10 percent of funds allocated for transportation infrastructure to women- and minority-owned contracting firms.
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The move is a notable reversal from the Biden administration. At the time, the DOJ argued “that the DBE was necessary to help remedy the effects of past and ongoing discrimination in government contracting.”
However, the executive orders President Donald Trump has issued are seeking to end any diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) measures. Wednesday's ruling is the latest way his administration is attempting to end the $37B affirmative action program, which is the largest and longest-standing program of its kind.
The post reports, “Even before Trump’s return to the White House, a number of federal affirmative action programs had been enjoined by the courts on constitutional grounds, with plaintiffs alleging that the Supreme Court’s college affirmative action decision barred the government from granting benefits based on race.”
“Proponents of the DBE program believe the loss could prove devastating for underrepresented groups in the government contracting world.” The Post added, “Supporters say many businesses will fold if the programs go away.”