At Philly forum, Buttigieg hears calls to diversify federal contracting

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Thursday took part in a Philadelphia conference focused on expanding the number of Black and brown contractors in the region.

Speaking at the event, Della Clark of the Enterprise Center noted there are many subcontractors who could grow if they had proper assistance.

“I’ve been here 30 years, and in my 30 years, I’ve never seen this amount of money come out of Washington for infrastructure spending, bridges, highway, rail. We just want to make sure that minorities are able to participate.” - Della Clark

Contractor Michael Brown was part of a roundtable with Buttigieg and urged the federal government to help.

“To ensure equity and inclusion exist, we need to change the way we do procurement,” Brown told the cabinet secretary.

Buttigieg assured the group that the Biden administration hears their plea.

“We’re about to move a trillion dollars through the economy of the United States of America. Shame on us if, after that, we have the same number of minority businesses of the same size that we had before.” - Pete Buttigieg