Now that the new highway-and-transit funding bill is finally signed into law, prime contractors that hate disadvantaged-business-enterprise, or DBE, goal programs shouldn't waste time hoping a potential President Romney will wipe them away in the same way he has pledged to nullify the 2010 health-care act just blessed by the Supreme Court. Not even the Tea Party has expressed interest in transportation DBEs. But it's a mistake
to believe that nothing needs to be fixed in DBE requirements, which have existed since 1983. This would be a good time to adjust the rules and clarify what constitutes compliance.