The Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program encouraged contracting with minority- and women-owned businesses in the transportation sector, where these groups are vastly underrepresented.
The Trump administration wants to end a U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) program that supports minority- and women-owned businesses, one of the nation’s oldest and largest affirmative action initiatives.
According to reporting by Julian Mark in The Washington Post, “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.”
If a judge agrees with the DOJ, it could spell the end of the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program (DBE), which was created by Congress in 1983 and allocates at least 10 percent of transportation funds to contracts with women- or minority-owned businesses. “The settlement is still subject to challenge by a coalition of businesses that intervened in the case after President Donald Trump took office, arguing that the program is essential to removing entrenched barriers that minorities and women face in the $759 billion contracting sector.”
Read the full story: Trump administration moves to upend $37B affirmative action program
USDOT Ends Effort to Tie Transportation Funding to ICE Cooperation
The department ended its effort to challenge a court ruling barring it from withholding federal grants over immigration enforcement.
Federal Judge Rules Trump Can’t Tie Transportation Funding to Immigration Policy
The judge said the administration did not offer “any plausible connection” between transportation projects and immigration enforcement.
Judge Halts Trump Order Tying State Transportation Grants to Immigration Actions
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Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
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Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
US buildings threatened, destroyed by fires set to triple by 2060
Researchers found a high fire risk for socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhoods in the American West.
LA residents may be allowed to paint their own crosswalks
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky put out a motion instructing the Los Angeles Department of Public Transportation to study the feasibility of allowing volunteers to paint crosswalks.
Dallas moves to overhaul its zoning code
The city's zoning reform will allow more multi-family and mixed-use developments.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
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