The Department of Transportation’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program is a critical tool to start to level the playing field for women- and minority-owned small businesses in the transportation sector. 

The program seeks to address a history of discrimination that has often excluded these businesses from government contracts and access to essential industry networks. However, this lifeline is now under threat due to a lawsuit seeking to gut the program.

A coalition of organizations dedicated to promoting opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses in the transportation industry, along with several such businesses, has taken legal action to defend the DBE Program. 

The coalition working to defend the program includes the National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC), Women First National Legislative Committee, Airport Minority Advisory Council (AMAC), Women Construction Owners & Executives, Illinois Chapter (WCOE Illinois), Atlantic Meridian Contracting Corporation, and Upstate Steel. The groups are represented in the matter by Democracy Forward, the Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense and Education Fund (MBELDEF), and Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs LLP. 

The organizations and businesses have filed a motion to intervene in the case, asking the court to allow them to participate in the case to safeguard opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses to thrive in a historically exclusionary industry. 

However, after the court granted the coalition’s motion to intervene, the plaintiffs and the DOT submitted a proposed agreement to the court, that seeks to impose sweeping and permanent restrictions on the DBE Program, potentially blocking state and local governments from using race- or gender-conscious contracting goals and setting a dangerous precedent that would tie the hands of future administrations. 

The coalition filed an opposition to the proposed agreement, arguing that it is legally deficient, unfairly negotiated, inconsistent with decades of court rulings and congressional reauthorizations affirming the DBE Program, and a threat to thousands of minority- and women-owned businesses that rely on the DBE Program to access opportunities in a historically exclusionary industry.

The opposition has received strong support. A coalition of 21 states and the District of Columbia, along with a group of local governments and officials, Minority Veterans of America, and the Disadvantaged Business Enterprises of America (DBEs of America), filed amicus briefs in support of the opposition to the entry of the consent order.

Read the states’ brief, the local governments’ brief, Minority Veterans of America’s brief, and DBEs of America’s brief.

Timeline:

• January 24, 2025 — Coalition files motion to intervene
• May 21, 2025 — The U.S. District Court of Kentucky granted the right to intervene
• May 28, 2025 — Plaintiffs and DOT filed a proposed agreement to impose permanent restrictions on the DBE Program
• June 18, 2025 — Coalition filed opposition to the proposed agreement
• June 26, 2025 — A diverse group of state, municipalities, local officials, veterans, and small businesses filed amicus briefs urging the court to reject the proposed consent

Without the DBE Program, small businesses owned by women and people of color may face closure, jeopardizing their livelihoods and weakening efforts to rebuild and diversify America’s infrastructure. They seek to ensure the government begins to fulfill its obligation to address and remedy discrimination while empowering underrepresented business owners to contribute to the nation’s economic growth.

The case is MidAmerica Milling v. Department of Transportation.