The Associated General Contractors (AGC) strongly opposes preferences and quotas in government contracting.

          AGC represents more than 33,000 firms, and it is the oldest and largest construction trade association in the U.S.   AGC's official position paper on the topic of preferences and quotas states, in part:

          "AGC supports open and unrestricted competition for all federal and federally-assisted construction contracts and subcontracts, without regard to the race or gender of a company’s ownership.

          "... [AGC opposes] special preferences based on race or gender, in the belief that such measures are unfair and unlawful, and have done little to help disadvantaged firms learn how to compete. The U.S. Supreme Court strongly endorsed AGC’s legal position in Adarand v Peña."

          In its position statement, AGC cites federal contracting laws which require racial and gender goals, set-asides, and preferences.  Such laws essentially force general contractors to let subcontracts only to certain firms that meet the government's racial and gender profiles.  This quota requirement holds even if the so-called "disadvantaged" firms are not the lowest bidders and/or not the best qualified bidders.

          AGC cites three massive government programs through which the racial and gender quota requirements are imposed:

• The Section 8(a) set-aside program operated by the U.S. Small Business Administration which affects direct federal contracting, including defense.

• The "disadvantaged" business enterprise program (DBE) pertaining to federal-aid highway construction.

• The small "disadvantaged" business (SDB) program, which permeates virtually every federal contracting agency, which pertains to direct federal contracting.

          AGC has noted that in an effort to stem the tide of "reverse discrimination" lawsuits caused by these three, massive quota programs, the federal government has changed the language of the programs by selectively avoiding the use of terms like "minority", "race", or "gender", and by attempting to give the impression that firms owned by white males can also qualify for "disadvantaged" status.  (In actuality, however, firms owned by white males face an additional, onerous burden of proof to qualify as "disadvantaged" which is not required of preferred minorities.)

          AGC does encourage and support non-race based, non-gender based mentor-protégé programs and other efforts to help disadvantaged individuals, including minorities and women, enter and succeed in the construction industry.

          For the complete text of AGC's official position paper on preferences and quotas, visit their web site:
http://www.agc.org/Legislative_Info/Position_Papers/special_pref.asp

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