Congress eliminates federal contracting preferences for women and minority-owned businesses

What it does

This bill eliminates federal contracting preferences for small businesses owned by women, socially and economically disadvantaged individuals, and minorities. It repeals or strips out language from the Small Business Act and related laws that gave these businesses priority in federal contracts and grants, and prohibits federal agencies from considering race, ethnicity, or sex when awarding contracts. The bill also reduces participation goals for disadvantaged businesses in transportation and other federal programs.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core function is to repeal federal small-business contracting preferences based on ownership demographics (race, ethnicity, sex, disadvantaged status). It does this through systematic deletion of preference language across multiple statutes and adds new prohibitions on federal agencies considering these factors.

What the text implies

• Eliminates data collection and reporting requirements on disadvantaged-business participation, removing transparency into federal contracting equity outcomes.
• Strips language requiring federal contractors to consider diversity in their own subcontracting decisions, shifting burden away from prime contractors.
• Repeals the Minority Business Development Act of 2021 entirely, eliminating a dedicated federal program for minority entrepreneurship support.
• Reduces airport improvement grant participation goals from 10% to 5% for disadvantaged businesses, lowering the floor for inclusion in transportation infrastructure spending.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

The bill removes legal protections and economic opportunities for women and minority entrepreneurs to compete for federal contracts. While framed as ending discrimination, it eliminates affirmative inclusion mechanisms that were designed to remedy historical exclusion and expand economic opportunity for groups that faced documented barriers to federal contracting.

Who stands to gain

• large established contractors (reduced competition from disadvantaged-owned firms)
• majority-owned businesses (expanded access to federal contracts without diversity requirements)

Named in the bill

Small Business Administration, Department of Transportation, Department of Defense, Export-Import Bank, Environmental Protection Agency, women-owned small businesses, socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses, minority-owned businesses, HUBZone small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned businesses

Where it stands

• Apr 27, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Apr 27, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Armed Services and House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the Committees on Small…”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $0 in lobbying spend. A filing names 17 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.

Glenn Grothman, the sponsor, reported $352,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• Pacific Legal Foundation — $0 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.