To be eligible, a DBE must also meet a small business size standard. Certification has given us a trade barrier, not an increase in opportunity. But an increase in opportunity was what the FAA's DBE program was supposed to be all about in the beginning years. And women are, well, women. But states with community property laws have a difficult time discerning a 51 percent ownership by a woman who is married.
Time is bound to force an answer to that question.
After several refinements of its definitions and expectations, FAA's current language calls for a goal of at least 10 percent minority and women participation in any airport project funded from the federal level. While the goal is not set in stone, if any airport has a pattern of failing to meet that level, it had better be able to document the reasons for those failures. Airports are able to achieve participation by contracting directly to minority businesses. The lion's share of the obligation, however, is passed on to majority contractors, who are required to reach their own stated goals in a first-tier subbing relationship with minority contractors. They just don't have a working relationship with DBEs, and they want to use the same familiar contractors over and over again.