The Trump camp is stepping into the legal fight to shut down a major federal program that’s helped minority-owned businesses for decades.
Two white-owned Indiana companies, Mid-America Milling Company and Bagshaw Trucking Inc., sued the Department of Transportation in 2023, calling out the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program as unconstitutional. Backed by the Trump administration, they’re now pushing to dismantle the $37 billion initiative entirely.
In a new court filing this week, the Department of Justice proposed a settlement that could dismantle the DBE, which has funneled at least 10 percent of transportation infrastructure funds to minority-owned businesses since 1983.
The plaintiffs describe the DBE as “the largest, and perhaps oldest affirmative action program in U.S. history,” claiming the term “disadvantaged” is really “code for women and certain minorities.” The lawsuit adds: “Disfavored racial groups must compete with the preferred racial groups on an unequal footing.”
“Because the DBE program violates the Constitution’s ‘promise of equal treatment,’ it must be permanently dismantled,” the complaint states.
This move follows the 2023 Supreme Court decision that struck down race-conscious college admissions, prompting the Trump administration to “re-evaluate its position.”
Dan Lennington of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, the conservative group behind the suit, argues: “Over the past five decades, the federal government imposed a policy of race discrimination in the roadbuilding industry… That ends now.”
Meanwhile, the Biden administration previously defended the program, noting the plaintiffs failed to show any current contracts were actually impacted by DBE mandates.
