Van Hollen Joins Alsobrooks, Warnock, Colleagues in Effort to Protect Small and Minority Contracting Programs

U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) joined Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and 30 colleagues in demanding U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy reconsider his destabilizing efforts to dismantle the successful Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) and Airport Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (ACDBE) programs that help drive job growth and the nation's transportation economy.

The DBE program is a historically bipartisan federal initiative administered by DOT that sets an aspirational nationwide goal for federal transportation funding recipients to collectively spend at least 10 percent of those funds on small and disadvantaged businesses. The ACDBE program specifically targets contracting with DBEs for airport concessions, requiring airports that receive federal funding to set aspirational goals for DBE participation in prime and subprime contracts for concession operations.

"If the Department proceeds with its murky implementation of the IFR, it will be solely responsible for the chaos that follows," said lawmakers. "As long as DBE and ACDBE small businesses remain sidelined, hardworking Americans will be faced with higher costs from reduced competition, increased traffic, longer commutes, and an incomplete transportation system that limits physical, social, and economic mobility."

In October 2025, DOT declared the programs unconstitutional and issued an interim final rule to rewrite these programs. As part of the IFR, DOT paused the program until each previously participating small business can complete an impractical recertification process, including by describing "social and economic disadvantage" and past instances of discrimination without reference to racial and gender characteristics.

The lengthy and subjective process of recertification has effectively sidelined 50,000 high-performing small businesses, at a time when transportation construction costs continue to outpace inflation, and workforce shortages are the leading cause of project delays. This decision by DOT breaks decades of judicial precedent that sustained the DBE and ACDBE programs, as well as the necessity of a race and gender-conscious remedy to address specific, identifiable discrimination and its lingering effects.

Reports from the Department of Justice and Minority Business Development Agency found instances where small and minority businesses have been discriminated against, including minority contractors being called racial slurs, other contractors receiving feedback such as "I will never use a minority firm for the service that I do," or that they were not selected for a subcontract due to their surname.

The Federal DBE and ACDBE programs are based on former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson's robust minority contracting participation requirements for city contracts. Today, the programs support more than 4,000 small businesses embedded in the fabric of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the transportation network across Georgia.

The Senators efforts were joined by U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Kirsten Gillibran (D-N.Y.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D- Ore.), Patty Murray, (D-Wash.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

Full text of the letter is available here and below.

Dear Secretary Duffy,

We write with deep concern that the Department of Transportation's ("the Department") Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise in Airport Concessions Program Implementation Modifications Interim Final Rule (the IFR) risks destabilizing transportation contracting and concessionaire markets nationwide. The Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) and Airport Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (ACDBE) programs have played a vital role in advancing the physical, social, and economic mobility of all Americans, while growing thousands of small businesses that help drive the nation's transportation economy.

These programs have increased competition, expanded contractor and concessionaire capacity, and supported the timely and cost-effective delivery of federally-assisted transportation projects. At a time when transportation construction costs continue to outpace inflation and construction workforce shortages are the leading cause of project delays, any action that disrupts the participation of experienced DBE and ACDBE firms threatens to increase costs, delay delivery, and reduce competition across our transportation economy.

Congress created the DBE program in 1983 to help women- and minority-owned small businesses, which face severe and pervasive discrimination, fairly compete for federally assisted transportation and infrastructure projects. Despite progress in the years since, these small businesses have faced well-documented, persistent, and at times intentionally discriminatory barriers from public and private actors in their attempts to establish, grow, and operate construction and concessionaire businesses.

These persistent discriminatory barriers are why Congress has repeatedly affirmed its support for these programs, most recently in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) (P.L. 117-58) and the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 (P.L. 118-63).

The DBE and ACDBE programs not only help remedy pervasive and, at times, intentional discrimination, but they also play a unique role in creating a diverse transportation contractor and supplier base that increases competition, lowers costs for America's commuters, and drives new wealth creation. As of October 1, 2025, there were nearly 50,000 certified DBE businesses nationwide supporting an estimated more than 500,000 jobs, many of which would not exist without the DBE program. Since 2023, DBE certifications have increased nearly 20 percent, reflecting both growing entrepreneurial participation and continued demand for these firms' services.

The DBE and ACDBE programs also represent a strong return on federal investment. According to the Department, the ACDBE program alone generated $2.7 billion in concessionaire revenues in 2022. More broadly, small businesses have accounted for roughly two-thirds of net job creation over the past 25 years. Nationally, minority-owned businesses, nearly all of which are small businesses, have contributed hundreds of billions of dollars in annual economic output, supported millions of jobs nationwide, and have grown at rates substantially exceeding the national average in recent years.

In 2024, leveraging less than $10 million in federal funding, Florida's Small Business Development Center helped small businesses create or retain nearly 20,000 jobs, generate $475 million in tax revenues, and produce $3.8 billion in sales for local economies. These outcomes underscore a basic principle: policies that expand fair access to opportunity strengthen economic performance and fiscal outcomes alike.

Therefore, we were deeply concerned when the Department sidelined nearly 50,000 high-performing small businesses (representing approximately 500,000 employees) and froze a $37 billion investment program - and the billions more in economic activity it supports - all at a cost of over $100 million to the American taxpayer. This decision could not have come at a more inopportune time, with labor shortages already driving up costs and documented capacity constraints within many state departments of transportation.

The absence of a demonstrated transition plan, implementation capacity analysis, or disruption mitigation strategy raises serious concerns regarding project delivery, administrative feasibility, and the potential harm for small businesses and the communities they support. If the Department proceeds with its murky implementation of the IFR, it will be solely responsible for the chaos that follows. As long as DBE and ACDBE small businesses remain sidelined, hardworking Americans will be faced with higher costs from reduced competition, increased traffic, longer commutes, and an incomplete transportation system that limits physical, social, and economic mobility.

We urge the Department to work collaboratively with Congress to address any identified concerns rather than proceeding unilaterally to dismantle programs that have served as pillars of the nation's transportation economy and created opportunities for countless Americans. All of our nation's citizens deserve the equal opportunity-free from pervasive and ongoing discrimination-to contribute to building the country's infrastructure and build wealth for their families and their communities.

Sincerely.