A federal judge this week ruled against a Biden-Harris administration program that allocated around $37 billion in federal road contracts for businesses owned by women and racial minorities, raising questions about the future of a decades-old affirmative action program.
Since the 1980s, the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program has required around 10% of federal dollars allocated for road construction contracts to go to women and certain racial minorities. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which Biden signed in 2021, reauthorized the DBE and set aside $37 billion for eligible recipients.
This year, two small businesses sued the Transportation Department, saying that the DBE program caused them to lose out on business. On Monday, Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove ruled that the Biden-Harris administration could not enforce the DBE’s affirmative action quotas against the businesses.
“The Court is keenly aware of the past discrimination that certain groups of people…