The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) have formally signed a reciprocity agreement under which historically underutilized businesses (HUBs) may work for either agency under a single small business enterprise (SBE) certification.
Under the agreement, any business that is certified as an SBE with one agency is automatically thereby certified as an SBE with the other agency. The agreement is thus intended to make it easier for such SBEs to compete for contract work from both government agencies.
The reciprocity agreement comes as a victory for the Equity in Infrastructure Project (EIP), an organization founded in 2022 to foster greater procurement usage of historically under-utilized businesses by government agencies. Representatives of EIP have been working in hopes of eventually creating more and more reciprocity agreements between agencies and, as a long-term goal, a nationwide database of minority-, women-owned, and other types of underutilized businesses that is broadly accepted by a national range of government agencies.
"We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create general generational wealth for small, minority- and women-owned firms like we have never had before," said Leslie Richards, the general manager of SEPTA, in a statement.
Read the press release from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials at https://aashtojournal.org/2023/01/10/aashto-hosts-signing-of-cta-septa-reciprocity-agreement/.
Read more at https://www.cityandstatepa.com/policy/2023/01/septa-signs-agreement-make-it-easier-minority-owned-businesses-work-transit-system/381664/.
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