Exclusive: Four States Accused Of Continuing Race-Based DOT Policies Trump Eliminated
@SecDuffy are you aware of this?🤔
Companies should not be cut out of projects/contracts simply because they are, or aren't a certain color. 😉
That is discrimination!
We need all this D.E.I. BS stopped!
From the article:
When the Trump administration slapped a permanent injunction on the oldest and largest affirmative action program in the federal government, it was supposed to be the end of race- and sex-based discrimination at the Department of Transportation. But at least four states have been engaging in an illegal end-around of the order issued last fall by the DOT and the Department of Justice, according to a new complaint exclusively provided to The Federalist.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) this week filed the formal complaint against state transportation departments in New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Indiana. In the five-page letter to Trump administration Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, WILL alleges that the states violated the section of the 1964 the Civil Rights Act that prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in any program that receives federal funding.
WILL alleges the states continue to employ state-based Minority Business Enterprise programs to achieve “racial goals.” In other words, white male business owners need not apply.
In October, Duffy’s DOT published an Interim Final Rule (IFR) excising all race- and sex-based presumptions from federal Disadvantaged Business Enterprise programs.
“States seem to believe that because certain projects are entirely state funded, the IFR does not apply… But states cannot circumvent federal law simply by using state tax dollars.“ Daniel Lennington, vice president and deputy council for the Milwaukee-based public-interest law firm, argues in the complaint.
Named on the complaint are New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, and Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, the sole Republican in the group. The document includes the states’ requests for bids in recent months, filed with alleged discriminatory demands.
New York state’s DOT “assures the public that it complies with” the Civil Rights Act’s prohibitions on discriminatory practices, the complaint states. But a notice of letting for April 16 advertises three separate projects with a Minority Business Enterprise goal, the complaint, alleges. The document includes the ads in the exhibits.
Massachusetts DOT on March 4 issued a notice to prospective bidders posting a quota of eight percent minority and women businesses for a pavement project, according to the complaint.
Maryland’s transportation department “imposes race-based goals on its state-funded highway projects.” Officials set a minimum minority business goal of five percent for substantial projects involving “several significant highways, tunnels, and bridges, including the Francis Scott Key Bridge (FSK), the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, and the JFK Memorial Highway.”
“The bidder shall seek commitments from minority business enterprises by subcontracting and/or procurement of materials and/or services, the combined value of which equals or exceeds the established Contract goal of 14 percent of the total value of the prime Contract,” the bid invitation states.
And Indiana imposes race-based quotas on its highway projects — even those involving federal highway repairs, the complaint alleges. A state department of transportation advertisement last month seeking bids for pavement patching a segment of Interstate 69 in Huntington County, “contains explicit race- and sex-based goals.” The project demands minority businesses make up seven percent of the contract bid price, with women-owed businesses taking three percent of the pie, according to the complaint.
The four states receive billons of dollars each year in federal funding.
WILL is representing Contractors for Equal Opportunity (CEO), a nationwide voluntary membership association of companies that have been “negatively impacted by discrimination in local, state, and federal contracting programs,” the organization states on its website.
“Whether governments use the phrase ‘Affirmative Action,’ ‘Diversity, Equity, Inclusion,’ or just ‘Supplier Diversity,’ these programs all illegally discriminate based on race and/or gender,” CEO’s website states. “CEO members have experienced discrimination, higher costs, and/or lost business because of these programs. CEO members can be either prime contractors or subcontractors.”
“The Trump Administration took an important step to end race discrimination in federally funded highway projects. Now some states are flouting that rule by paying for some roadbuilding projects without any federal money,” the attorney said in a statement to The Federalist. “But federal law prohibits this shell game, and the Trump Administration should enforce the law against these states.”
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