July 2, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 122 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E613]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





               DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS ENTERPRISE PROGRAM

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                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, July 2, 2020

  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, in this historical moment, we are all 
working to find ways to eliminate racial injustice and the disparities 
it causes. Certainly, people of color must be treated with fairness and 
respect by law enforcement. But it will take far more than that to 
begin to make a dent in the race and sex discrimination that keeps far 
too many people locked out of the American dream. In this context, the 
Disadvantaged Business Enterprise or DBE Program, which is reauthorized 
in this legislation, is essential. As we have over the past decades 
since the DBE program was originally enacted in 1983, this Committee 
has received enormous amounts of evidence demonstrating that 
discrimination continues to plague the industries that make up the 
surface transportation market. One of the studies referenced in our 
Committee Report involves the Nashville and the surrounding 
metropolitan area. The numbers are devastating--especially in prime 
contracting. Firms owned by African Americans earned 3 cents on the 
dollar of what we would expect them to earn given their availability in 
Architecture and Engineering markets. For Asian Americans the number 
was 18 cents on the dollar and for Hispanic Americans it was 47 cents 
on the dollar. That is simply unacceptable. In construction 
contracting, African Americans did better, but Hispanic Americans did 
much, much worse--and none did as well as white males. In prime 
construction contracts, African American owned firms earned 55 cents on 
the dollar of what we would have expected given their representation in 
the availability for prime construction contracting. Asian Americans 
earned 25 cents on the dollar and Hispanic Americans earned 1 cent on 
the dollar. Metro Nashville Tennessee Disparity Study Final Report, 
Griffin and Strong, P.C., August 2018, at 83 through 84. These numbers 
make clear that minority business owners in this country are trapped in 
a cycle of discrimination from which escape is close to impossible. We 
cannot permit this situation to continue.

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