The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program is its most important tool for ensuring that firms competing for USDOT-assisted contracts are not disadvantaged by unlawful discrimination. 

This program originally began in 1980 as a minority business enterprise program. In 1983, Congress enacted the first statutory DBE provision, applying primarily to small minority-owned firms. In 1987, the program was expanded to women-owned firms. 

Initially, the Surface Transportation Assistant Act (STURRA) of 1982, and subsequent transportation acts such as the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991, directed that -- to the fullest extent possible -- at least 10% of Federal-Aid highway funds be expended with small, disadvantaged business enterprises. 

However, in 1999, new DBE program regulations were implemented that changed the direction of the program from the old philosophy of "maximum participation" by DBEs on USDOT-assisted contracts to that of creating a "level playing field" for DBEs to compete fairly for procurement opportunities. These program changes were in response to the Supreme Court's 1995 decision in Adarand v. Peña that affirmative action programs be "narrowly tailored to serve a compelling governmental interest," that of addressing discrimination. 

Each USDOT recipient (state DOTs such as the West Virginia Transportation Department - WVDOT) now has the responsibility for developing an overall annual contract goal which reflects the level of DBE participation expected on USDOT-assisted contracts in the absence of discrimination.