DBE program interim final rule
By: Elisa Bottos, State Aid Project Delivery Engineer
What’s going on?
The Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program is a U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) initiative designed to ensure equal opportunity for small businesses owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals in federally funded transportation contracts.
The USDOT recently published an interim final rule which significantly changes DBE program. The changes include what qualifies a contractor to be in the program, and no longer assumes disadvantage based on race and gender of the company ownership. DBE companies must now prove disadvantage based on individual social and economic factors to benefit from the program. Minnesota will recertify firms through the Minnesota Unified Certification Program in the coming months to create a new list of certified DBE contractors.
What do I do?
Local agency federal aid contracts bid and awarded before the rule changed on October 3, 2025, will remain unchanged.
Local agency federal aid contracts awarded after October 3, 2025, have received revised special provisions to include in their contract either through addendum or by contract change order.
These new DBE-Neutral Special Provisions will be included in all new project specific DCP packet documents sent to agencies from State Aid after plan review.
These special provisions do not have a numerical DBE goal, rather they use a DBE-neutral goal which does not require the use of DBE firms. These special provisions will be used until the list of certified DBE firms is reestablished at which time, numerical DBE goals will be set again.
Questions?
If you have questions, please contact Elisa Bottos at elisa.bottos@state.mn.us or 651-248-1201.