I 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4439 

To ensure that minority-owned and women-owned businesses have a full 

and fair opportunity to compete in covered rail projects and contracts, 

and that the Federal Government does not subsidize discrimination in 

covered rail projects. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 9, 2014 

Ms. BROWN of Florida introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the 

Committee on Small Business, for a period to be subsequently determined 

by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 

within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To ensure that minority-owned and women-owned businesses 

have a full and fair opportunity to compete in covered 

rail projects and contracts, and that the Federal Government does not subsidize discrimination in covered rail 

projects. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS ENTERPRISE PRO4 GRAM. 

5 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) While significant progress has occurred due 

2 to the enactment of a disadvantaged business enter3 prise program for highways and mass transit, in4 cluding commuter rail passenger transportation, dis5 crimination and related barriers continue to pose 

6 significant obstacles for minority-owned and women7 owned businesses seeking to do business in federally 

8 assisted surface transportation-related markets, in9 cluding intercity rail passenger transportation mar10 kets. This continuing discrimination warrants the es11 tablishment of the disadvantaged business enterprise 

12 program under this section. 

13 (2) Discrimination poses serious barriers to the 

14 full and fair participation of minority and women 

15 business owners, including African-Americans, His16 panic-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Native 

17 Americans in federally assisted surface transpor18 tation-related projects and contracts, including inter19 city rail passenger transportation projects and con20 tracts. 

21 (3) Discrimination impacts minority and women 

22 business owners in every geographic region of the 

23 United States and throughout all of the surface 

24 transportation-related industries, including intercity 

25 rail passenger transportation industries. 


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1 (4) Congress has reviewed evidence of discrimi2 nation against minority and women business owners 

3 throughout the transportation sector, including— 

4 (A) statistical analyses demonstrating sig5 nificant disparities in the utilization of minor6 ity-owned and women-owned businesses in fed7 erally and locally funded transportation con8 tracting; 

9 (B) statistical analyses of private sector 

10 disparities in business success by minority11 owned and women-owned businesses in trans12 portation industries; 

13 (C) research compiling anecdotal reports of 

14 discrimination against individual minority and 

15 women business owners; 

16 (D) individual reports of discrimination 

17 against minority and women business owners 

18 and the organizations and individuals who rep19 resent minority and women business owners; 

20 (E) analyses demonstrating significant re21 ductions in the participation of minority and 

22 women businesses in jurisdictions that have re23 duced or eliminated their minority-owned and 

24 women-owned business programs; 


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1 (F) statistical analyses showing significant 

2 disparities in the credit available to minority3 owned and women-owned businesses; 

4 (G) research and statistical analyses dem5 onstrating how discrimination negatively im6 pacts firm formation, growth, and success; 

7 (H) experience of State departments of 

8 transportation and localities demonstrating that 

9 race-neutral and gender-neutral efforts alone 

10 are insufficient to remedy discrimination; and 

11 (I) other qualitative and quantitative evi12 dence of discrimination against minority-owned 

13 and women-owned businesses in the transpor14 tation sector. 

15 (5) Congress has received and reviewed compel16 ling evidence of discrimination from many different 

17 sources, including congressional hearings and round18 tables, studies, scientific reports, reports issued by 

19 public and private agencies, news stories, reports of 

20 discrimination by organizations and individuals, and 

21 discrimination lawsuits. 

22 (6) All of this evidence applies not only to high23 way and mass transportation programs, but also to 

24 rail programs, providing a compelling need for the 

25 establishment of the disadvantaged business enterVerDate Mar 15 2010 04:01 Apr 12, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4439.IH H4439

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1 prise program under this section to address race and 

2 gender discrimination in intercity rail passenger 

3 transportation. 

4 (b) PROGRAM.—There is established a disadvantaged 

5 business enterprise program for the Federal Railroad Ad6 ministration to ensure that disadvantaged business enter7 prises have a full and fair opportunity to compete in cov8 ered rail projects and to ensure that the Federal Govern9 ment does not subsidize discrimination in covered rail 

10 projects. 

11 (c) AMOUNTS FOR DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS EN12 TERPRISES.—Except to the extent that the Secretary of 

13 Transportation determines otherwise, not less than 10 

14 percent of the amounts made available through a grant, 

15 contract, loan, or other financing instrument for any cov16 ered rail project shall be expended through disadvantaged 

17 business enterprises. 

18 (d) ANNUAL LISTING OF DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS

19 ENTERPRISES.—The unified certification program estab20 lished under subsection (e) shall annually survey and com21 pile a list of disadvantaged business enterprises and their 

22 location, and shall include an indication of the percentage 

23 of such enterprises which are controlled by women, by so24 cially and economically disadvantaged individuals (other 

25 than women), and by individuals who are women and are 


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1 otherwise socially and economically disadvantaged individ2 uals. 

3 (e) UNIFORM CERTIFICATION.—For purposes of car4 rying out this section, the Secretary of Transportation 

5 shall establish minimum uniform criteria to use in certi6 fying whether a concern qualifies as a small business con7 cern. The minimum uniform criteria shall include on-site 

8 visits, personal interviews with personnel, issuance or in9 spection of licenses, analyses of stock ownership, listing 

10 of equipment, analyses of bonding capacity, listing of work 

11 completed, examination of the resume of principal owners, 

12 analyses of financial capacity, and analyses of the type of 

13 work preferred. Federal Railroad Administration recipi14 ents of funds subject to this section must participate in 

15 unified certification program approved by the Secretary. 

16 (f) REPORTING.—The Secretary of Transportation 

17 shall establish minimum requirements for covered rail 

18 project Federal funding recipients to report to the Sec19 retary— 

20 (1) information concerning minority-owned and 

21 women-owned business awards, commitments, and 

22 achievements; and 

23 (2) such other information as the Secretary de24 termines to be appropriate for the proper monitoring 


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1 of the disadvantaged business enterprise program 

2 under this section. 

3 (g) COMPLIANCE WITH COURT ORDERS.—Nothing 

4 in this section limits the eligibility of an entity or person 

5 to receive funds if the entity or person is prevented, in 

6 whole or in part, from complying with subsection (c) be7 cause a Federal court issues a final order in which the 

8 court finds that a requirement or the implementation of 

9 subsection (c) is unconstitutional. 

10 (h) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following defi11 nitions apply: 

12 (1) COMMUTER RAIL PASSENGER TRANSPOR13 TATION AND INTERCITY RAIL PASSENGER TRANS14 PORTATION.—The terms ‘‘commuter rail passenger 

15 transportation’’ and ‘‘intercity rail passenger trans16 portation’’ have the meaning given those terms in 

17 section 24102 of title 49, United States Code. 

18 (2) COVERED RAIL PROJECT.—The term ‘‘cov19 ered rail project’’ means any railroad project that is 

20 carried out or is planned to be carried out with the 

21 use of Federal funds administered by the Federal 

22 Railroad Administration through a grant, contract, 

23 loan, or other financing instrument. 

24 (3) DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS ENTERPRISE.— 

25 The term ‘‘disadvantaged business enterprise’’ 


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1 means a small business concern owned by socially 

2 and economically disadvantaged individuals. 

3 (4) SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN.—The term 

4 ‘‘small business concern’’ has the meaning given 

5 that term under section 3 of the Small Business Act 

6 (15 U.S.C. 632), except that the term shall not in7 clude any concern or group of concerns controlled by 

8 the same socially and economically disadvantaged in9 dividual or individuals that have average annual 

10 gross receipts over the preceding 3 fiscal years in ex11 cess of $22,410,000, as adjusted annually by the 

12 Secretary of Transportation for inflation. 

13 (5) SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVAN14 TAGED INDIVIDUALS.—The term ‘‘socially and eco15 nomically disadvantaged individuals’’ has the mean16 ing given that term under section 8(d) of the Small 

17 Business Act (15 U.S.C. 637(d)) and relevant sub18 contracting regulations issued pursuant to that Act, 

19 except that women shall be presumed to be socially 

20 and economically disadvantaged individuals for pur21 poses of this section. 

Æ 


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