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MDOT director says IIJA discretionary grants moving forward and flags DBE court injunction affecting goals
Summary
MDOT Director Greg Bridal told the State Transportation Commission that IIJA discretionary grants previously announced but not yet obligated are beginning to move forward and that a preliminary federal court injunction has temporarily altered how DBE goals are applied to some bidders.
MDOT Director Greg Bridal told the State Transportation Commission on Aug. 1 that several discretionary grants under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) that had been announced but not yet obligated are now moving forward and that MDOT is shifting some small-business outreach in response to a federal court preliminary injunction affecting the federal Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program.
Bridal said that some IIJA discretionary grant agreements were held while specific grant verbiage and legal questions were resolved after the change in federal administration. He said court actions and federal agency guidance have allowed MDOT to proceed on several grants and that MDOT “had about a half a billion dollars in potential grants that had been announced but not yet obligated.”
On federal program compliance, Bridal said a federal court in Kentucky has issued a preliminary injunction affecting the DBE program as applied to two contractors; the injunction requires that DBE goals for those bidders be set to zero for specific projects in certain states, including Michigan, while the court resolves constitutional challenges. Bridal said he expects a final decision on that litigation within one to two months and that MDOT is preparing for possible outcomes by expanding a race- and gender-neutral small business program that would establish project-level small-business goals and outreach.
Bridal also said MDOT received a USDOT letter indicating that USDOT would not enforce some prior administration executive orders, which the director said provided “a little more flexibility and ability to continue to move forward on our program.”
No formal action was taken on these items; the director’s remarks were informational to the commission.
