enterprise asserted the project director a principal investigator for over forty studies the business discrimination or the book on the subject and provided expert testimony in federal state courts on meetings and related matters primary b business discrimination even the use of public sector purchasing power to promote fair and full access to government contracting opportunities for minority and women owned businesses and to mitigate the impact of such discrimination in the private sector  defending the constitutionality of the program as applied by contrast when the program washington state was challenged no study or expert was proffered at all as a result the ninth circuit lacked the benefit of the rocky case concerning the program for small disadvantaged business here in crawford no study of their own nor an expert to testify about such a study and once again the court made several serious errors  ere one or more of the participating interviews with the department of transportation transit authority or with the committee's permission i would like to provide copies of the studies for the record of the study in the country seventy five members of this committee fifty hail from states represented in the study submitted despite their geographic diversity studies finding so much more similarity in difference throughout the nation continue to face large disparities in almost every aspect of business activity that can here to ask whether these disparities result primarily from discrimination or from other factors put such questions to the test using the most recent available data or studies find even when other nondiscriminatory attributes are held sector the economic consequences of that program are significant events improved economic opportunities for minorities and women in business and thereby improve the overall competitiveness and efficiency of the american economy thank you i'll be glad to answer any dramatic being certified my sales have more than par drupal before being certified there was a lack of opportunity very few prime contractors to me i was limited to a very small geographical radius and could not expand i could not get my foot in a door in many cases smaller companies are not given a chance by the larger companies and once they are certified the certification help certified doesn't guarantee a job but it does open doors i still have to be a little better discrimination and a factor for women and minorities in the construction business i will illustrate a few example one company called and instead of giving me an invitation to the man asked if i wanted to make more money and he gave me an invitation to a meeting to sell health and beauty products for a pyramid company i told him that if i had to sell his company's products in order to be a subcontractor for him i would not do it i have not done any business with that company since then another instance of discrimination is that there are companies that will not construction business with a female i sent one of my male employees to negotiate a job and to be a project manager with such a company when the owner understood that i had the day to day control he never asked me again for another often i'll get a call asking for the person in charge of estimating and i said i'm that person and then the caller hangs up once in a while the person says well i want the boss or the man in charge and i say i am the boss i'm the man in charge and i still hear a click on the other end of the phone i was not taken seriously by contractors or union business agent even though i'm not certified i still have to prove myself on a day to day basis and we are rated in several categories it's not enough for the on the state of illinois to say that i'm qualified to do the work i have to be low bidder for the steel rebar on a project we have to perform in a timely manner according to the specifications and turn on all the required documentation i'm responsible for several people's wages benefits and tax burdens small businesses including women and minority owned businesses are the driving force in the united states attorney it is vital but at the big companies merge the smaller companies such as the b b companies remain to help the local communities this is particularly true of areas away from the urban regions where there is still a lot of true diversity if women and minorities were not a part of the program our companies would not get a job just because some contractors feel that we are incapable of running a construction company on a day to day basis our business would take a backward step to the struggles of where we were before we were certified we are simply asking for the opportunity to receive projects without bias and grateful for the apprenticeship training committee these appointments would not have happened without the b b e program for these reasons but maybe programs should remain a part of the department of transportation thank you very much for your time and consideration ethnic discrimination however much remains to be done discrimination still negatively impacts minority businesses in many areas for them capital when financing business networks tr n minorities are often shut out i graduated from the university of texas at austin one of the state schools and from harvard law school degrees have not benefited me in the same way that they have neutral measures that are recipients are directed to take in order to get as much participation as they can on through race neutral means through the bonding initiative that we've discussed in by and by other safeguards are there to protect the public on many occasions but at the same time make it possible for new businesses oftentimes minority situation i was looking for a vote and or contributions you would be looking for possibly contacts later on for jobs and or for loans from the banks because that's where the bankers and the members of the board  johnson member of the texas allegation and other members of the committee my name is donna bannon i am chair of the airport minority advisory council and i am pleased to have the opportunity to appear before the committee in support of the federal aviation administration airport contracting and concessions and the inclusion of minorities and women in employment within the airport industry and this committee is aware racial and gender discrimination and sort of from the panel above the force continues to present a contracting construction concessions my testimony will be tailored the impact of discrimination on b b contracting and concessions and will address policies that they may believe should be adopted as part of the f reauthorization therefore d b e contracting in concessions programs have started to address with the space by the front but there is compelling evidence demonstrating that there is ongoing need for these programs to evidence demonstrate continuing discrimination against women and minorities in the aviation industry and the industry sectors with which airports and other transportation agencies conduct business the studies represent every region of the country both urban and rural the studies also demonstrate that discrimination based by women and minority groups african americans hispanics asian and native americans comes in a bar already a point each of the studies provide significant quantitative evidence of discrimination against maybe farms and industries that are related to airport contracting while statistical analysis presents quantitative evidence for discrimination they do not tell the entire story we can much better under than the seriousness of the statistics from stories that are told by the businesses themselves there are just three examples and hispanic contractor reported that a general contractor called him to express that he did not want any mexicans she encounters on particular jobs have asked her what are you doing here an african american businessman reported that people assume he does not understand relatively simple matters related to his work on one occasion as part of the bidding process for concrete contracts individual spoke to him very slowly to make sure that the african american businessman understood the studies provide strong testicle and anecdotal evidence of discrimination against minorities and women and demonstrate that there is a continuing need for the airport contracting and concessions the program as part of my testimony with permission of the chair i have submitted six additional studies and asked that they be included in the record without objection shoulder mr chairman we would also like to thank you for addressing two missions related to the program h r nine fifteen although the airport b b program is governed by a single set of federal regulations chairman a man greatly appreciate the committee's leadership on the importance of diversity and inclusion in the airport industry we thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony and for your consideration of our comments and we look forward to working with this committee in the future thank you very much it's my understanding mr cohen will introduce our next witnesses yes thank you mr chairman i'm pleased today that we have two witnesses from my home city memphis authority i did have the privilege of being a former city attorney and former h r director for the city of memphis as well and then i'll be chinee airport authority has had a lot of inclusion if minority women are disadvantaged technology to traffic engineering to professional services for legal real estate capital investment they are suppliers that provide goods and services to the industry they run the gamut from the various business startups which are poised to partner in a manner  america mr chairman and members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to present testimony today on the u s department of transportation disadvantaged business enterprise program i mean president  instruction located outside toledo ohio representing the associated general contractors of america evony a second generation family owned business that performed at and mailing primarily as a sub contractor in large diverse and fragmented as between struction industry is entirely free of discrimination while the vast majority of the women who work in our industry are good people there are no doubt  agency is working to foster a business climate that enhances opportunity for all the contracting community has concerns about the administration of the d v program many program of farmers are contradictory and or ambiguous in addition there can be a lack of uniformity in the way each state handle these various requirements these problems are real concerns for contractors because stepping over the line can lead to pension disbarment and federal prosecution made and other d o t representative the outcome of the meeting was a creation of industry government worked to identify the tragedy three and inconsistent program farm and clarified the intent and the administration of these attached to my testimony agency believes that the document is very helpful in clarifying for all parties involved how this program the requirement and how they are intended to be implemented however by all of our effort that they could not endorse this document unfortunately that rendered the document useless because contractors and d d e must have the confidence in their decision that they make related to program finance are based of opinion on how to administer the rules many of these issues also impede b d s from being successful in the program and calls on certainty and potential traps for contractors and to be attempting to meet these requirements and example of how the implementation of this program seems to undermine its intended purpose are the rules related to the expertise of the d v d owner once again honors are being held to a different standard than non d part of the commercial useful function you need so contractors are being asked to go to the field and actually perform deal tasks let's remember running a successful contracting operation does not require the owner to be able to operate machinery or perform any of the actual construction task however running a business requires an entirely different set of skills another issue that was discussed as part of  assistance the general contractor is able to provide d b s so contractors it is industry standard practice to provide assistance to stop trying tractors with equipment personnel and material as the needs of th prove can be provided to the not be beefed up contractor however if a prime contractor was to offer the same assistance to the d v e contractor red flags were raised and both the contractor and the b could be subject to intense scrutiny or targeted for legal proceedings and example the regulation that works against the success in the program is issues that directly impact my company the regulations allow for the party source that portion of the time on track is not drown it off to a third party is not an option because the plans call for me but specific material production frequently the prime contractor then becomes the only source for that material not allowing my purchase of apple from the prime undermine the ability of the prime not only meet their goals negatively impact my  further meetings with the d o t resulted in the creation of the d v d roundtable through this forum issues can be raised and discussed in a public setting resulting in guidance from d o t d agency is hopeful that the round table will continue the round table has addressed the use of joint tracks certification consistency change orders d v d capacity and many more items the issue i mentioned about material pressure from the prime has also been addressed and we are awaiting a wendy's response we believe the program rules need to be written in a way that allows for more collaboration mentoring and assisting agency has always encouraged the permission of mentor protegee problem program that allowed contractors to work with d v firms in a collaborative fashion to ensure a mutually beneficial result mr chairman and members of the committee agency has taken the approach that while the program is in place we will work together serious problems here in this program the problems are reflective of the society in which we better and you're simply not aware mr chair there must be a commitment to be in your application implementation of the program really is where the rubber meets the road if you  paperwork but you understand people and i mean those opportunities you can call it what you want but the fact is is that it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the discrimination the contractor and the insurance company without some of the financial restrictions that go into the bonding with crime so that's one approach that i think this committee should take a second approach that i think this committee should take a look standing in the critical but the critical battle for many smaller minority women on business is that mobilization and the time that it takes in a public sector job to get f w and i'll use my airport as an example we have a situation where you work thirty day you then have thirty days by statute to pay that sixty day assuming that you are still a contractor that prime contractor can pay you with nancy and be fifteen days on the date but they get paid that if seventy five days before you get your first shift you play paid i don't want to disparage the people who work in my capacity but some of us you know i'm a lawyer by training and what i have to do and thank goodness our board supported this when i went and i requested our board i need a construction expert i need someone on construction so they can tell me how to speak construction even to a construction person because i found myself being i would go in with the expectation of achieving a certain goal and simply get talked out of it because i simply didn't have the expertise so that the staffing and the training of the d b e early on was critical i mean we must be able to critically analytically there's the work the scope of work we must have experience in this area and enough training and background in order to impact the process so it's the delivery of the services if we do not have been trying we cannot be effective and we either have to have the staffing level bring that expertise today to the fourth night or the type of to request a meeting which they agreed to grant us and we're looking forward to that to sit down and discuss this problem and what we've heard is that while there are the same as you know the devil is in the details and they're all existing regulations to accept certification which is much of their heritage and seeing is concerned about the integrity of their certification process our position and our point of view is that we feel that two way communication is vital to promoting the program we have created the tool kit which we hope at some point will be endorsed by the d o t the roundtable was also created last year it's a form in which contractors majority and minority contractors get together with the  various and we're able to sit down and discuss the and the regulations that are currently in place that had the potential to negatively impact both the contractor as well as the as well as the d w conducted a economic impact study that was done by the university of texas and for the period september twenty ninth two thousand and six through august thirtieth two thousand and eight we look