The U.S. Department of Transportation is preparing guidance to clarify that states must require all bidders to submit disadvantaged business enterprise (DBE) utilization information regardless of whether the state requires the bidder to submit the information at time of bid or allows a five day grace period following bid submission. AGC wrote to Transportation Secretary Chao and asked that the guidance be changed to require only the apparent low bidder to submit this information.
The DBE rules allow states to choose whether to require DBE commitment information with bid submittal or up to five days later. In our comments, AGC pointed out that when U.S. DOT revised the DBE rules during the Obama Administration, there was much discussion on this issue as part of the rule making process and in meetings between DOT officials and AGC members. At that time, DOT indicated that if a state chooses the five day grace period that only the apparent low bidder would be required to submit its DBE commitments.
DOT responded to AGC’s letter indicating that it plans to move ahead with guidance that requires all bidders to submit DBE commitments even if states choose the five day grace period.
For more information, contact Brian Deery at [email protected] or (703) 837-5319.
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