Denver International Airport CEO Phillip Washington has had a hand in President Biden's equity and infrastructure efforts since before the administration even took office.
Washington, along with former U.S. deputy transportation secretary John Porcari, chaired the Biden-Harris policy committee for infrastructure, and Washington led the transportation transition team. In the roles, the pair helped draft Biden's high-profile Justice40 executive order as well as key transportation and infrastructure policies.
Inspired in part by the Justice40 order, which commits 40% of federal infrastructure funds to disadvantaged communities, Washington and Porcari founded the Equity in Infrastructure Project, which formally launched Tuesday.
The nonprofit asks public agencies to sign a pledge to significantly increase — even double — the number of lead, joint venture and equity contracting opportunities given to historically underserved businesses on infrastructure projects that use federal funds.
Many HUBs, such as disadvantaged and women- or minority-owned, have traditionally been relegated to subcontractors or blocked out of the procurement process entirely.
The idea was sparked in part by a Drexel University
“That Drexel report, along with President Biden’s executive order, prompted the idea to start this initiative,” said Washington. “We thought putting this EIP together is a way of answering the president’s call to invest in underserved communities and increase generational wealth, especially for black and brown communities."
The group’s launch is timed to take advantage of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which promotes equity-based projects.
The EIP
Five public agencies have signed the pledge as so-called First Movers: the Chicago Transit Authority, the Port of Long Beach, the Denver airport, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.
As part of the process, the agency submits its current existing contracting information, including its use of small, disadvantaged and W/MBE business enterprise programs.
“Then we asked the agencies to look out over three years and identify how many contracts would be coming up,” Washington said. “Our hope is to double the amount of prime contracts awarded by these agencies by 2025.”
Key to the initiative is that the HUBs win prime contracts – as lead underwriter for a bond deal, for example, or GC of the project – as opposed to subcontractor, Washington said.
“That is how you build generational wealth,” he said. “And the expectation is that those minority firms that are awarded prime contracts will pay it forward and backward by hiring underserved populations for the work.”
The group is funded by The James Irvine Foundation and the Social Impact Fund, among others.
