[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 168 (Tuesday, August 29, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52470-52471]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-22021]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Office of the Secretary

RIN 2105-AC90


Participation by Disadvantaged Business Enterprises in Department 
of Transportation Financial Assistance Programs; Inflationary 
Adjustment

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, DOT.

ACTION: 2000 inflation adjustment of size limits on small businesses 
participating in the DOT's Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program.

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SUMMARY: Under the statutes governing the Department's Disadvantaged 
Business Enterprise (DBE) Program, firms are not considered small 
businesses concerns and are therefore ineligible as DBEs once their 
average annual receipts over the preceding three fiscal years reach 
specified dollar limits. These statutes, and the DOT rule implementing 
them (49 CFR part 26), provide that the Secretary may adjust these 
specified dollar limits for inflation. Consequently, this notice 
revises the limits established by section 1101(b)(2)(A) of the 
Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), Public Law 
105-178, July 22, 1998 as well as the Airport and Airway Safety, 
Capacity, Noise Improvement and Intermodal Transportation Act of 1992, 
Public Law 102-581, October 31, 1992, 49 U.S.C. 47113 (formerly section 
505(d) of the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982, as amended 
(AAIA)), Public Law 97-248, Title V, September 3, 1982. The Department 
has determined that the appropriate cap for all portions of the DBE 
program (airport, highway and transit) is now $17,420,000.

EFFECTIVE DATE: August 29, 2000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Laura Aguilar, Office of the Assistant 
General Counsel for Environmental, Civil Rights, and General Law, 
Department of Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW, Room 10102, 
Washington, D.C. 20590; Telephone: 202-366-0365.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The DBE program is a statutory program 
intended to provide contracting opportunities for small business 
concerns owned and controlled by socially and economically 
disadvantaged individuals in the Department's highway, mass transit and 
airport financial assistance programs. The statutory provision 
governing the DBE program in the highway and mass transit financial 
assistance programs is section 1101(b) of TEA-21, Public Law 105-178, 
July 22, 1998. The statutory provision governing the DBE program as it 
relates to the airport planning and airport development financial 
assistance programs is section 505(d) of the AAIA, Public Law 97-248, 
Title V, September 3, 1982, as amended by section 105(f) of the Airport 
and Airway Safety and Capacity Expansion Act, Public Law 100-223, 
December 30, 1987, and section 117(c) of the Airport and Airway Safety, 
Capacity, Noise Improvement, and Intermodal Transportation Act of 1992, 
Public Law 102-581, October 31, 1992. This provision is codified at 49 
U.S.C. 47113.
    The DBE provisions in TEA-21 and AAIA reflect Congress' intention 
that the DBE program meets the objective of helping small business 
concerns, owned and controlled by socially and economically 
disadvantaged individuals, become self-sufficient and able to compete 
with non-disadvantaged firms. To achieve this, DBE firms are currently 
ineligible for the program once their average annual gross receipts 
over the preceding three fiscal years exceed $16,600,000. This 
specified gross receipts cap is subject to adjustment by the Secretary 
of Transportation for inflation. See TEA-21 Sec. 1101(b)(2)(A) and 49 
U.S.C. 47113(a)(1)(B).
    This notice adjusts the DBE gross receipts cap for inflation since 
enactment of TEA-21 in July 1998. This notice does not address the 
small business size standards for the DBE program for airport 
concessions established pursuant to section 511(a)(17) of the AAIA, as 
amended (49 U.S.C. 47107(e)). The maximum size standards for airport 
concessionaires under that program are currently set forth in 49 CFR 
Part 23, Subpart F, Appendix A.
    The current gross receipts cap regulates DBE's operating under both 
TEA-21 and AAIA. The Department last adjusted these DBE size limits for 
inflation in 1994. Under the 1994 adjustment, the cap was raised for 
inflation from $16,015,000 to $16,600,000 or 3.63%. In recognition of 
the overall effects of inflation on the economy within the past few 
years, the Department wants to insure that DBE's have the maximum 
opportunity to participate in DOT-assisted contracts of highway, 
transit and airport recipients by adjusting the small business size 
limit for inflation. With an inflationary adjustment for the period 
from TEA-21's enactment through the first quarter of 2000, the 
Department has determined that the appropriate cap for all portions of 
the DBE program (airport, highway and transit) is now $17,420,000.
    In arriving at the $17,420,000 figure, the DOT used a Department of 
Commerce price index to make a current inflation adjustment. The 
Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis prepares constant 
dollar estimates of state and local government purchases of goods and 
services by deflating current dollar estimates by suitable price 
indexes. These indexes include purchases of durable and non-durable 
goods, financial and other services, structures (11 types of new 
construction, net purchases of existing residential structures, 
nonresidential structures and maintenance repair services) and 
compensation of employees. Using these price deflators enables the 
Department to adjust dollar figures for past years' inflation.
    Given the nature of DOT's DBE Program, adjusting the gross receipts 
cap in the same manner in which inflation adjustments are made to the 
costs of state and local government purchases of goods and services is 
simple, accurate and fair. The inflation rate on purchases by state and 
local governments for the current year is calculated by dividing the 
price deflator for the first quarter of 2000 (109.56) by 1998's third 
quarter price deflator (104.40). The third quarter of 1998 is used 
because that is when TEA-21 was enacted, along with the DBE statutory 
cap amount of $16,600,000. The result of the calculation is 1.0494, 
which represents an inflation rate of 4.94% from the third quarter of 
1998 through the first quarter of 2000. Multiplying the $16,600,000 
figure by 1.0494 equals

[[Page 52471]]

$17,420,040, which will be rounded off to the nearest $10,000, or 
$17,420,000. Using this Department-wide cap should help make the 
program more understandable and consistent for all participants.
    Therefore, until further notice, if a firm's average gross annual 
receipts over the preceding three years do not exceed $17,420,000, it 
does not exceed the small business size limit contained in the 
statutes.

    Issued this 22nd day of August 2000, at Washington, DC.
Rodney E. Slater,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 00-22021 Filed 8-28-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-62-P