On April 9, the U.S. Department of Transportation finalized the new rule for the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program. The rule will take effect on May 9, 2024.

You may recall, AGC weighed in on this rule over a year ago after reaching consensus among DBE and non-DBE members.

Some of the key changes made to the DBE program include:

• Streamlining the initial DBE certification and eligibility process;
• Increasing the personal net worth (PNW) cap for inflation for small business owners to $2,047,000, including excluding retirement assets from the calculation;
• Easing the interstate certification process for DBEs – a process that in the past has been extremely onerous often requiring the DBE to go through the certification process all over again just do to work in another state; and
• Modernizing the rules for counting participation by DBE material suppliers.

One change not included in the final rule was a change to the NAICS specialty codes.

AGC continues to advocate for equity within the DBE program by ensuring that all DBE contractors are classified under one specialty code (Code 237310 Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction) that would ensure that all DBE contractors are capped at the same gross annual revenue of $30.72 million.

For more information check out this summary or video overview. If you still have questions, please contact Alex Etchen.