A program that helps keep women- and minority-owned businesses afloat is on the ropes

The Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program is part of what has made our continued growth possible.

By Jaime Lodge

Last year, the number of women in the construction industry hit a 20-year high—1.34 million, with more than half a million in managerial or professional roles. Yet despite these gains, discrimination against women business owners remains rampant. Some recount prime contractors withholding payment unless they agreed to inappropriate advances. Others remember when banks refused them loans unless a husband co-signed. I know firsthand that the barriers women face in construction are not always this blatant—but they persist all the same. They show up in who gets access to opportunities and who is assumed to belong in the room.

For those of us in the industry, this inequity isn’t abstract. It’s a daily reality. The outcomes speak for themselves: women- and minority-owned businesses receive fewer opportunities in private contracting where no federal inclusion goals exist. And even with such goals, women-owned construction firms earn just 48 cents for every dollar they should, based on their availability in the marketplace. Federal support has been essential to helping these businesses get a fair shot—but that support is now at risk.

My company, PJR & Associates, is one of those businesses. Founded in 1989 by my grandmother, Patricia J. Reiman, PJR has been a female-owned, independently operated union ironworker contractor for more than 35 years. I purchased the business from her in 2016, carrying forward a legacy built by the women in my family. We are based in one of the most rural corners of Jackson County, Ill., where more than 20% of residents live in poverty. Our hometown of Campbell Hill has just over 300 people, and the local school district spans more than 200 square miles, serving low-income families across five small communities. Many of our employees come from these same towns, and several have worked with PJR since its founding, now joined by the next generation of their families.

The Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program is part of what has made our continued growth possible. By helping remedy past and present discrimination, the DBE program gives women- and minority-owned small businesses a fair chance to compete for government contracts and build the relationships that keep companies like mine afloat. For nearly 40 years, the program has set participation goals to ensure competition is truly open, not dominated by the largest or best-connected firms.

DBE certification doesn’t guarantee contracts. It offers access and opportunity, not automatic selection. It remains one of the few federal efforts that genuinely helps level the playing field in an industry still shaped by exclusion.

More than 50,000 certified DBE companies across the United States employ over half a million people who help build and maintain our roads, bridges, and airports. These are qualified, trusted local businesses that reinvest in their communities and strengthen local economies in rural towns and major cities. When small businesses like mine win federal contracts, the jobs—and the dollars—stay in the community instead of going to non-local workers hired by larger firms.

That’s why recent disruptions to the DBE program hit our business so hard. In November 2024, the day before an Illinois Department of Transportation bid opening, several projects on which PJR had prepared to bid were withdrawn without warning. We lost time, resources, and potential income overnight. Shortly afterward, additional projects had their DBE participation goals reduced to zero, effectively cutting us out of access to work we had long been positioned to compete for. Over the past several months, these repeated setbacks have cost us the opportunity to compete fairly for well over $4 million in contracts—creating losses that fall directly on our employees, their families, and the fragile rural economy we serve.

And beyond these economic blows, small female-owned businesses like mine face a different kind of barrier: misinformation and gendered assumptions. Despite more than three decades of successful operation, rumors in our small community have claimed that PJR is “going under,” that a competitor is “buying us out,” or that I have “begged” another firm to finish our projects. None of this is true. We have never relied on another contractor to complete our work; every project PJR undertakes is managed and staffed by our own team. As a woman leading a construction company, I must continually reestablish my competence and authority, even after 35 years of proven performance. These double standards are exactly why initiatives like the DBE program remain essential.

To keep this vital program alive, Congress must reauthorize it next year. Yet amid changes last month in eligibility criteria, misconceptions about how it works, mistaken claims that it’s no longer needed, and competing priorities on Capitol Hill, any delay would put the program—and the economic opportunities it drives in communities nationwide—at serious risk. Without it, many small businesses could lose access to critical infrastructure contracts, forcing reductions in hours, wages, or staff. Large corporations would tighten their grip on the industry, and that reduced competition could ultimately affect the quality of the infrastructure we all rely on.

Eliminating the DBE program would erase one of the few effective avenues for underrepresented entrepreneurs to gain a foothold in an industry that has long shut them out. For thousands of small businesses like mine, this program isn’t a handout; it’s a chance to compete on equal footing. Congress must act now to reauthorize the DBE program and ensure that opportunity, fairness, and competition remain cornerstones of America’s infrastructure future.

Jaime Lodge is a third-generation owner of PJR & Associates (a female-owned DBE), an independently operated Union Ironworker contractor for more than 35 years in Campbell Hill, IL and a trustee of Women First, a leading advocate for the protection and expansion of the DBE program.

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