Sponsor
Mike Lee
Senator · R-UT
Senator · R-UT
The bill simplifies and race/sex-neutralizes federal procurement and reporting and concentrates preferences on HUBZone firms, reducing administrative burdens for agencies and some contractors while significantly diminishing statutory supports, data transparency, and contracting opportunities for women-, minority-, and other disadvantaged small businesses.
Federal reporting and procurement guidance will be simpler and race/sex-neutral (aligning HUBZone reporting to a single statutory definition and removing race/sex-based guidance), reducing paperwork and compliance complexity for agencies and contractors.
Small businesses located in qualified HUBZone areas gain prioritized access to certain federal procurements by focusing procurement language on 'qualified HUBZone small business concerns'.
Lowering the airport DBE written-assurance goal (from 10% to 5%) can reduce administrative burdens and compliance costs for airports and contractors, which may speed project delivery and lower near-term project costs for taxpayers.
Women-, minority-, and other socially/economically disadvantaged-owned small businesses will lose statutory recognition and program access, reducing their contracting opportunities and likely decreasing participation in federal procurement.
Removing mandated reporting on women- and disadvantaged-owned firms and reducing procurement data transparency will make it harder to track disparities, impair oversight, and limit Congress and watchdogs' ability to evaluate equity in federal contracting.
Eliminating the EPA's 8% set-aside removes a statutory funding floor that likely reduces environmental grant dollars reaching disadvantaged-owned organizations.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Removes statutory disadvantaged- and women-owned small-business preferences and reporting, reduces selected participation goals, and bars agencies from considering owners’ race, ethnicity, or sex in contracting.
Official title: End preferences for disadvantaged individuals and businesses in Government contracts, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 27, 2026 by Mike Lee · Last progress April 27, 2026
Removes race-, ethnicity-, and sex-based preferences, goals, reporting, and statutory references for disadvantaged- and women-owned small business programs across multiple federal laws and programs and prohibits federal agencies and defense departments from considering owners’ race, ethnicity, or sex in contract awards. It also lowers certain participation goals, deletes statutory set-asides, requires agencies to revise or repeal rules and guidance that encourage consideration of demographic characteristics, and makes related clerical code updates.