Certifications

Select Certification DBE MBE WBE SBE DVBE HUB Section 3 ELBE SLBE

State

Select a State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District Of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

Legislation introduced to beef up USDOT DBE provisions

U.S. Representative Jesús "Chuy" García (IL-04) has introduced a bill, referred to as the "Giving Disadvantaged Businesses Opportunities for Success Act", intended to promote governmental contracting opportunities for minority- and woman-owned businesses (MWBEs).

The bills provisions include: adjusting the net worth caps for DBEs upwards from the curent limit of $1.32 million by accounting for inflation since 2011, when the current caps were set, and also requiring further adjustments for inflation on an annual basis; making the definition of "small business concern" used by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) consistent with the one used by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA); requiring USDOT to exclude the same assets from its personal net worth test for DBEs that SBA excludes under the Small Business Act; making DBE certifications nationally reciprocal in all states "without additional procedures"; requiring USDOT to give annual awards to states running the best DBE programs, and to give them priority in discretionary grant programs; and requiring USDOT to contain a public database containing all waivers and exemptions from DBE requirements that have been granted by governmental agencies.

"Latino, Black, and Women-owned businesses deserve an equitable portion of contracts in the transportation and construction industries [...] it's long past time Congress level the playing field for minority-owned businesses in this sector," said Rep. García in a press release.

Read the press release from Rep. García's office at https://chuygarcia.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-garcia-introduces-new-bold-legislation-to-strengthen-opportunities-for-latino-and-mwbe-businesses.