On May 10, 2010, the Department of Transportation’s (“DOT”) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) seeking comments on proposed improvements to its Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program was included in the Federal Register. The DOT had issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comments from interested parties in April of 2009. ACI-NA was one of the many parties that submitted comments in this proceeding. ACI-NA also joined several other aviation and transportation trade associations in filing joint comments in response to the DOT’s ANPRM last July.
Under its recent NPRM, the DOT addressed a number of the issues on which comments were sought last year. The NPRM identifies approaches the DOT will consider in implementing program improvements in the following areas: accountability for DBE program recipients with respect to overall goals; good faith efforts to meet annual goal submissions; improving oversight of DBE programs; amendment to personal net worth caps to reflect inflationary impact since 1989; interstate certification and related issues; fostering small business participation through the implementation of objective rules to discourage practices that have discriminatory and exclusionary effects on small businesses; terminations and substitutions of DBE contractors; application and personal net worth form revisions; and counting of DBE participation in contract reporting.
Comments on the NPRM are requested by July 9, 2010. ACI-NA will file comments in the proceeding. Please feel free to send any concerns regarding the NPRM to members of the Business Diversity Steering Group, or the Legal Affairs Steering Group.
See the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
See Comments filed by ACI-NA in 2009
See Comments filed by transportation coalition associations, including ACI-NA, in 2009
Subscribe to ARN now! Click Here
