Sponsor
Glenn Grothman
Representative · R-WI
Representative · R-WI
The bill simplifies federal contracting and reporting and favors HUBZone and merit‑based competition, but it does so by removing race/gender‑based preferences, reporting, and statutory participation goals—trading administrative clarity and a color‑blind approach for reduced visibility, oversight, and targeted contracting opportunities for women and disadvantaged firms.
Small businesses (broadly) and contracting agencies will face simpler, more uniform contracting rules because categorical preferences and some prescriptive considerations are removed, reducing administrative complexity for agencies and prime contractors.
Airport grant applicants and local governments will have lower administrative burden from less prescriptive participation goals (reduced from 10% to 5%), simplifying grant compliance for DOT grantees.
HUBZone‑qualified small businesses will be prioritized and face less ambiguity because the HUBZone definition is aligned to a single statutory source, which may increase opportunities for firms in historically underutilized zones.
Women-owned and socially/economically disadvantaged small businesses (including racial/ethnic minority‑owned firms) will lose statutory preferences, set‑asides, and explicit recognition, reducing their prioritized access to federal contracts and likely decreasing award opportunities.
Reducing or repealing numerical participation goals (e.g., airport improvement grant goal from 10% to 5%, repeal of DBE 10% goal) will likely shrink contract dollars flowing to targeted disadvantaged firms.
Repealing the EPA's 8% participation requirement and similar statutory floors may reduce funding for socially and economically disadvantaged organizations and nonprofits that relied on those minimums.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Removes race/ethnicity/sex‑based contracting preferences, goals, and reporting, and bans agencies from considering owners’ race, ethnicity, or sex in federal awards.
Official title: To end preferences for disadvantaged individuals and businesses in Government contracts, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 27, 2026 by Glenn Grothman · Last progress April 27, 2026
Removes statutory contracting preferences, goals, reporting categories, and program text that treat businesses differently based on race, ethnicity, or sex, and bans federal agencies from considering owners’ race, ethnicity, or sex when awarding contracts or grants. It also requires agencies to quickly revise regulations and guidance to eliminate references to such categories and replaces some disadvantaged-business references with HUBZone-only language. The bill changes multiple federal laws (Small Business Act, airport grant law, EPA and Energy Policy Act provisions, and federal procurement reporting) to eliminate or narrow race-, ethnicity-, and gender‑based contracting preferences and numeric participation goals, and it adds new prohibitions against using those characteristics in civilian and defense contracting decisions.