WASHINGTON — The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey unlawfully set aside one-fifth of its contracts for minority-owned businesses — and let preferred vendors bid up to 10% over market, according to a bombshell civil rights complaint filed Monday by a conservative legal group.
The allegation by America First Legal (AFL) warned billions of dollars in federal funding could be at risk if the PA is found to have flouted both anti-discrimination laws and executive actions signed by President Trump after he returned to the White House this past January.
“The Port Authority is going to collect and spend over $9 billion this year,” said AFL senior counsel Andrew Block in a statement. “It is responsible for overseeing one of the busiest travel hubs in the world: New York City, including six airports, four bridges, and four seaports, three rail yards, two tunnels into Manhattan, and the World Trade Center.
“But instead of focusing on delivering the most efficient movement of goods and people through its facilities, the Port Authority is more concerned with its ‘Equity’ initiatives,” Block added. “Every extra dollar the Port Authority spends on discriminatory initiatives is a tax it passes on to travelers, ratepayers, and consumers who purchase goods that pass through New York.”
The complaint, submitted to civil rights offices at the Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency as well as the White House Office of Management and Budget, charges that under Port Authority policy, so-called “minority-owned business enterprises,” (MBEs) are guaranteed 20% of contracts — while minority-owned vendors are also given “price preference” on purchase orders even when “their price exceeds the lowest bid by up to 10[%].”
“This means that for every million dollars on a contract bid, the Port Authority will pay up to an extra $100,000 to engage in race-based discrimination,” the complaint reads. “In addition to being wasteful of taxpayer and ratepayer resources, it is illegal and simply un-American.”
The AFL complaint also flags the PA’s so-called “Diversity Management” portal, which helps MBEs get certified and connect with vendors, a program described as “available, or not available, to businesses based on nothing other than the skin color or sex of the business owner.”
Jose Febrillet, the chief diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) officer at the Port Authority, was quoted as saying in a September 2024 interview with The American Journal of Transportation: “We have a collective commitment to equity at all levels, and that’s key to moving in the right direction together.”
Other PA officials — including Aviation Director Sarah McKeon and PATH rail system director Clarelle DeGraffe — have also affirmed an interest in seeking out wider “representation” from minority groups and finding “talented [b]lack professionals” for promotion “to key positions of leadership,” respectively.
Those statements are in alignment with the Port Authority’s 2021 “comprehensive Diversity Recruitment Strategy,” but AFL alleged in its civil rights complaint that its self-professed stance on recruiting was akin to “operating a DEI program for nearly sixty years.”
“Simply put, race is being used to create an uneven playing field,” Block wrote in the complaint. “This type of ethnic favoritism is anti-American and was outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
At least $451 million was awarded to the Port Authority by the EPA in 2024 as part of a “Clean Ports Program” in 2024.
The Department of Transportation, meanwhile, has handed over more than $3.6 billion in federal funding to the PA since 2008.
The AFL complaint warns that the authority’s practices could risk the “safety, efficiency, and improvement” of its operations.
Every year, more than $200 billion in containerized goods and 195 million people move through hubs operated by the PA — including shipping terminals at Bayonne, Elizabeth, Jersey City, Newark and Staten Island; JFK and Newark Liberty International Airports as well as LaGuardia, Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, Teterboro Airport and Atlantic City International Airport.
A rep for the Port Authority declined to comment when contacted by The Post.
Reps for DOT, EPA, and OMB did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Read the full article here
