ARTBA Meets with White House on DBE Rule Revisions

What happened: As the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) finalizes pending revisions to the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program, ARTBA members and staff met Jan. 17 with officials from the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) and other federal agencies to recap the association’s positions on these proposals. The meeting was part of OIRA’s review of the proposed revisions and public comments, a final step before enacting the rule changes.

Why it matters: U.S. DOT has proposed numerous smaller-scale revisions to the DBE program. ARTBA previously filed comments on the proposals in October 2022.

Most notably, the department is considering capping – at 50 percent – the portion of a project’s DBE goal that can be fulfilled through procurement of materials from DBE suppliers and manufacturers. During ARTBA’s meeting with OIRA, Craig Hoogstraten of Philadelphia’s James J. Anderson Construction, who chairs ARTBA’s DBE Program Policy Task Force, and Bob Latham, executive vice president of the Associated Pennsylvania Constructors, explained that such an arbitrary limit would severely disrupt industry efforts to meet DBE goals in their state.

On the positive side, ARTBA reiterated its support for the Federal Highway Administration’s “DBE Performance Plan” initiative, which allows a more flexible approach to meeting goals on design-build projects. In addition, ARTBA strongly supports U.S. DOT’s intentions to improve the accuracy and timeliness of DBE directories.

What’s next: Once OIRA completes its review of the draft, U.S. DOT will publish it in the Federal Register. While there’s currently no timeline for publication, the agency has signaled it hopes to finalize revisions by February. ARTBA’s Rich Juliano or Prianka Sharma are contacts.