The decision by the Labor Department to suspend affirmative action rules in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was done for a good reason...really...it was to help speed aid and recovery. All that new paperwork would just slow things down...the result?
About 1.5 percent of the $1.6 billion awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency has gone to minority businesses, less than a third of the 5 percent normally required.
Add to this the suspension of prevailing wages and the following comment applies to the entire Gulf Coast region:
"What they're basically saying to the minority in New Orleans is, 'We'll make it harder for you to find a job. And if you do, we'll make sure you get paid less.'"
Indeed. And consider this:
The Department of Homeland Security...said it is committed to hiring smaller, disadvantaged firms.
And who received one of the first Katrina-related contracts? Kellogg, Brown and Root.
And the Bush administration continues to show how the GOP wants to
reach out to the African-American community:
At a recent meeting in Mississippi for minority businesspeople with federal contracting officials, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said many of the 100 owners walked out in anger when told their best chance of getting work was to seek smaller subcontracts from the larger companies.
Cronyism is alive and well. Besides KBR's contract, other firms receiving the no-bid contracts had ties to the administration and/or Mississippis Governor, Haley Barbour
And what do local Black businessmen think?
Jenkins, who is black, says he watched in frustration as the contracts went to others, many of them larger, white-owned companies with political ties to Washington.
"That just doesn't smell right," said Jenkins, president of AJA Management and Technical Services Inc. of Jackson, Miss., noting the region has a higher percentage of blacks and minority-owned businesses that other areas of the country. [...]
In the meantime, Willie Nelson of 33-year-old Nelson Plumbing Inc., continues to wait. He says white-owned firms scurry with work in Mississippi, while his Jackson business sits idle.
"The majority firms are all over the place," Nelson said. "We just want an equal opportunity. But it's been very difficult. They seem to be more interested in taking care of their own while we try to just get a foot in the door."
And the administration's reaction? They're going to count on anti-discrimination laws to keep the awarding of contracts fair...oh, and Bush met with the President of the NAACP to discuss the situation. In the meantime the contracts are being awarded...and the people who need the work the most are getting screwed...again.