The NAACP condemned the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Interim Final Rule on the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) and Airport Concession Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (ACDBE) programs, which strips away race- and gender-based presumptions of disadvantage, effectively dismantling decades of progress toward economic justice and equity in federal contracting. 

The rule, issued on September 30, 2025, removes critical protections for minority- and women-owned businesses by requiring all applicants to individually prove “social and economic disadvantage,” regardless of centuries of well-documented systemic barriers to capital, contracts, and opportunity. 

“This rule is nothing more than an attempt to erase the reality of racism in contracting,” says Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP. “The Department of Transportation has turned its back on history and on the very purpose of the DBE program. The economic exclusion of Black Americans and women isn’t theoretical. It’s measurable and ongoing. This change signals that the federal government would rather pretend inequality doesn’t exist than address it. It’s unfortunate but not unexpected.” 

The DBE program was originally designed to drive economic equity for small, socially and economically disadvantaged businesses—many owned by Black Americans, other people of color, and women—competing for federally funded contracts. These programs were grounded in more than eight decades of federal recognition that racism and discrimination continue to distort access to opportunity, beginning with President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration and continuing through President Kennedy’s 1961 Executive Order on Affirmative Action. 

By eliminating race- and gender-based presumptions and forcing all firms to individually prove discrimination, the DOT has shifted the burden of proof from the government—which has long acknowledged systemic inequities—to the very entrepreneurs harmed by them. 

The NAACP advises that Black, brown and women-owned businesses continue to document discrimination and to hold this government accountable.  

The Association calls on the Department of Transportation to rescind the rule and restore federal commitments to equity in contracting. The NAACP will continue to monitor this policy, work with congressional partners, and, if necessary, explore all legal avenues to protect the rights and opportunities of disadvantaged businesses across the nation.