{"id":248498,"date":"2026-01-26T15:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T21:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanleaguela.org\/?p=248498"},"modified":"2026-01-26T16:09:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T22:09:58","slug":"dbe-certification-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbanleaguela.org\/dbe-certification-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"DBE Certification Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Attention Certified DBE\/ACDBE Firms:<\/span><\/strong> On September 30, 2025, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) issued an Interim Final Rule (IFR) revising certain regulations governing the <strong>Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) <\/strong>and<strong> Airport Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (ACDBE)<\/strong> programs. These changes took effect on October 3, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the IFR, USDOT amended 49 CFR Parts 26 and 23, removing the prior race- and sex-based presumptions of social and economic disadvantage. Under the new rule, determinations of disadvantage must be made on an individual basis. Specifically:<\/p>\n<p>49 CFR \u00a726.5 \u2013 \u201c<em>Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Individual<\/em>\u201d means any individual who is a U.S. citizen (or lawfully admitted permanent resident) and who a [DBE\/ACDBE Program] certifier finds to be socially and economically disadvantaged based on individualized proof, and not in whole or in part on race or sex.<\/p>\n<p>To follow the new federal requirements, the Louisiana Unified Certification Program (LAUCP) must now reevaluate all currently certified DBE and ACDBE firms. During this process, your certifying agency will:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Review<\/strong> your firm\u2019s eligibility under the new rule.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Recertify<\/strong> your firm if you meet the updated standards; or<\/li>\n<li><strong>Decertify<\/strong> your firm only if you do not meet the new standards or do not respond to the LAUCP re-evaluation request.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>To start this process, please let LADOTD know if your firm would like to continue participating in the LAUCP by confirming that you want to be re-evaluated under the new IFR standards. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To do this, please respond to the LAUCP re-evaluation request promptly by:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Completing<\/strong> the official Louisiana Unified Certification Program (LAUCP) Firm Re-evaluation Response Form.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Printing out AND Signing<\/strong> your form; and,<\/li>\n<li><strong>Returning<\/strong> your completed form to <a href=\"mailto:2025IFRCompliance@la.gov\" data-linkindex=\"18\"><strong>2025IFRCompliance@la.gov<\/strong><\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Please note that each LAUCP certifying agency has its own response form. The form used here is for LADOTD certified DBEs only.<\/p>\n<p>If you have already submitted this form, thank you for your cooperation.<\/p>\n<p>If you have not yet submitted the form, it is imperative that the LADOTD Compliance Programs Section receive your completed form via email to: <a href=\"mailto:2025IFRCompliance@la.gov\" data-linkindex=\"19\"><strong>2025IFRCompliance@la.gov<\/strong><\/a> no later than the submission date of<strong>\u00a0Friday, January 30, 2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Questions? Please email <a href=\"mailto:dbesupport@urbanleaguela.org\" data-linkindex=\"20\">dbesupport@urbanleaguela.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/files.constantcontact.com\/a7aab666001\/e5c7c7c6-76b5-4d75-9a36-62ed5f135faa.pdf?rdr=true\"><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">LAUCP LADOTD Re-evaluation Response Form<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/files.constantcontact.com\/a7aab666001\/c186f7a0-3370-49c0-b9a6-ae65a367952e.pdf?rdr=true\"><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Frequently Asked Questions<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Attention Certified DBE\/ACDBE Firms: On September 30, 2025, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) issued an Interim Final Rule (IFR) revising certain regulations governing the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":248504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dotd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanleaguela.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanleaguela.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanleaguela.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanleaguela.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanleaguela.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/urbanleaguela.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248499,"href":"https:\/\/urbanleaguela.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248498\/revisions\/248499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanleaguela.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanleaguela.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanleaguela.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanleaguela.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}