U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today opened a summit on helping small, disadvantaged and minority-owned businesses by announcing that under the Obama Administration more than $1.3 billion worth of Economic Recovery Act contracts have gone to these kinds of small businesses.
Secretary LaHood welcomed more than 700 small and disadvantaged business owners, government executives and representatives of major corporations to “The Road to Recovery,” a two-day summit to help small firms owned and controlled by economically disadvantaged individuals compete for U.S. Department of Transportation contracts.
“We’ve made significant strides over the last year in reaching out to small businesses around the country and providing the tools they need to compete and to thrive in this tough economy,” said Secretary LaHood. “The contracts we have awarded have kept a lot of small businesses going and many jobs were saved or created.”
Secretary LaHood said there was more potential revenue for these firms in the pipeline, as many of the largest stimulus projects in the country will get under way this spring.
The Secretary also announced several initiatives to strengthen the department’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program. He proposed an advisory board to make recommendations for improvements to the program. The group will help ensure that all federal, state and local policies affecting DBEs are consistently and uniformly implemented.
The board will include representatives from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, the Office of the General Counsel and the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, Federal Railroad Administration and Federal Aviation Administration.
He said the department will also work to extend the Economic Recovery Act DBE Bonding Reimbursement Program, which is set to expire in September, by recommending that the Sunset Provision be removed. The program is an essential tool for helping small businesses that have less working capital than larger contractors compete for new business.
Finally, the Secretary announced plans to launch a demonstration program in five cities, similar to initiatives in Missouri and Wisconsin, which have proven successful models for awarding subcontracts on Economic Recovery Act projects.
“We want to take programs that have worked well and replicate them in other parts of the country,” said Secretary LaHood.
The five cities for the host demonstration projects are Louisville, Ky.-New Albany, Ind.; Denver, Colo.; Hartford, Conn.; Phoenix, Ariz.; and Brooklyn-Queens, N.Y.
A DBE is a for-profit, small business owned by minorities, women or economically disadvantaged individuals, or, in the case of a corporation, one in which 51 percent of the stock is owned by one or more such individuals. The daily business operations must be controlled by at least one of the socially and economically disadvantaged owners.
The first day of the summit features opening remarks by Secretary LaHood and a roundtable on “Leadership for the Global Business Community” moderated by John Rogers, Chairman of Ariel Investments, and featuring Sheila Johnson, the co-founder of BET. The keynote luncheon speaker will be Roland Martin, a political commentator and CNN contributor, and panels will continue throughout the day.
The second day will be devoted a panel discussion on the Missouri and Wisconsin models for enhancing Disadvantaged Business Enterprise participation and recruiting more minorities for construction jobs and to helping small businesses understand the resources available to them at the federal level and introducing them to larger firms that already have DOT contracts to facilitate potential subcontracting.
The summit is taking place at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.
