FRA Promoting Diversity, Inclusion

We are firmly committed to increasing equity across the American economy and ensuring that women and minority-owned businesses have a fair shot at contracting opportunities funded by federal dollars.” – FRA Acting Administrator Amit Bose

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is conducting what it describes as “a first of its kind” nationwide small, minority-owned and woman-owned “business disparity study” whose intent is to determine “whether the playing field is level” for firms bidding on subcontracts from grantees receiving FRA funds.

The electronic, invitation-only survey, which FRA notes takes an estimated fifteen minutes or less to complete, “underscores the Biden-Harris Administration’s focus on promoting diversity and inclusion,” the agency said. “It will determine the availability and use of small, minority-owned and woman-owned businesses in the publicly funded railroad landscape.”

To perform the survey, FRA contracted with Jack Faucett Associates and the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center (NORC), which have distributed 22,000 surveys and expects to send an additional 8,000 surveys. FRA will submit the results to Congress in a report, allowing members to determine the need for a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program at FRA.

“We are firmly committed to increasing equity across the American economy and ensuring that women and minority-owned businesses have a fair shot at contracting opportunities funded by federal dollars,” FRA Acting Administrator Amit Bose said. “Assessing the current extent of DBE and WBE inclusion, and if any disparities exist, is necessary to accomplish this goal. We’re asking all businesses and stakeholders who were selected to take this survey to respond as soon as possible. Doing so will help FRA and Congress fully understand the market and take steps to ensure it is both fair and open to all. These surveys will be critical to helping us understand if disparities exist and the nature of the disparities. We’ll use the results to assess how many small and disadvantaged businesses we’re reaching and whether we can do a better job of working with all that aspire to be FRA contractors.”

FRA noted that in 2020 it awarded more than $1 billion in grants for freight and passenger projects, through numerous discretionary and competitive funding programs authorized by Congress. All of these grants were geared toward “promoting and achieving safe, efficient and reliable railroad environments.”

To view two recent letters FRA issued inviting participants to complete the survey, visit https://railroads.dot.gov/disparity.