The Trump administration has agreed to end the use of race or gender of the U.S. Transportation Agency when awarding funds for highways and transport projects.
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- The Department of Transport said in a court application it agreed that “the program’s use of race- and gender-based presumptions is unconstitutional.”
- The department previously defended the policy as an attempt to improve past discrimination, but said it had reassessed its position in light of factors, including a 2023 Supreme Court decision.
The Trump administration said Wednesday it agreed to end race or gender considerations at the U.S. Transportation Agency when awarding billions of dollars on federal highways and funding for transportation projects traded for underprivileged small businesses.
A Kentucky September judge determined that the federal program, enacted in 1983, treated racial minorities and women-owned businesses as presumably disadvantaged as eligible for such funding.
The Department of Transport said in a court application it agreed that “the program’s use of race- and gender-based presumptions is unconstitutional.”
The department previously defended the policy as seeking to improve past discrimination, but said it had reassessed its position in light of factors including a Supreme Court decision in a 2023 positive action case.
US District Judge Gregory Van Teitenfe in Frankfort, Kentucky, appointee of former Republican President George W. Bush, said the federal government cannot classify people in ways that violate the principles of equal protection in the U.S. Constitution.
He relied in part on a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year, which effectively banned the policy of positive action that has long been used in university admissions to increase the number of black, Hispanic and other underrepresented minority students on American campuses.
The program was reauthorized in 2021 through the Signature Infrastructure Investment and Employment Act by then President Joe Biden.
