Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Supportive Services (DBE/SS) Accomplishments Report

The FHWA, Office of Civil Rights (HCR), has legislative authority under 23 USC 140(c) to allocate up to $10 million annually to State DOTs for the purpose of providing services to Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs) to improve their ability to compete on federally assisted contracts as prime and subcontractors. The regulations for the DBE/SS program are found in 230 Subpart B – Supportive Services for Minority, Disadvantaged, and Women Business Enterprises (The DBE/SS program is a FHWA discretionary grant program that has been identified as a Departmental and FHWA equity initiative. DBE/SS is also included in the Department’s Justice 40 initiative. To be eligible for funding for the DBE/SS program, State DOTs must submit a Statement of Work (SOW) to FHWA for review and approval for compliance with program intent, regulatory requirements, and federal cost principles. As a discretionary grant program, State DOTs receiving funding must provide reports to the FHWA to evaluate the progression of the program. See 23 CFR 230.204(h). While HCR has created guidance for State DOTs to follow in creating their SOWs, they are currently submitted in paper form and the contents and size of the submissions vary. Similarly, the reports from State DOTs are not uniform and do not always include the information necessary for FHWA to evaluate the success of the program. To address this, HCR has created a DBE/SS fillable SOW template and a DBE/SS Accomplishments Report for State DOTs to use to replace paper submissions. This template and report form are new and will be accessible electronically through the Civil Rights Connect System. While use of the SOW template will be voluntary, it will allow HCR to receive SOWs that are uniform in content and size. This will allow HCR to streamline its review and approval process in order to distribute funding in a more timely manner. Furthermore, the annual report will allow HCR to collect essential statistical and narrative data needed to evaluate the effectiveness of State DOT DBE/SS programs nationally.

The latest form for Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Supportive Services (DBE/SS) Accomplishments Report expires 2027-05-31 and can be found here.