Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador called for an end to a “discriminatory” federal program that costs states millions of dollars by pushing them to go with more expensive “diverse” contractors.

In a Wednesday court filing joined by 20 states, Labrador urged a federal judge to accept a proposal from the Trump administration to end an affirmative action program that favors minority- and women-owned businesses for state infrastructure projects. The initiative, known as the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program, set aside $37 billion under the Biden administration for “disadvantaged” groups. 

The program, which has been in effect since 1983, was originally challenged in September 2023 by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on behalf of two Indiana-based companies that claim they lost business opportunities based on the policy. The Biden administration fought back against the challenge, but the Trump administration has asked a judge to side with the complaint and disband the program. 

In an amicus brief, Labrador and the other plaintiffs urged Federal Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove, a George W. Bush nominee, to accept a consent decree proposed by the Trump administration that would end race and sex as components to qualify as a “disadvantaged business.” 

“This discrimination is expensive. It routinely requires States to reject the lowest bid on a project in favor of a less-efficient DBE-compliant bidder, and even when States can choose the lowest bid, the price is usually inflated because contractors have to use DBE-compliant subcontractors,” the filing says. “The DBE program wastes money on purpose. When supposedly disadvantaged entities are the lowest bidders, the program has no effect-its whole point is to force States to hire disadvantaged entities when they are not the lowest bidders.”

Labrador told The Daily Wire that the rule has cost his state at least $15.2 million over a 44-month period. In one instance, he said that Idaho had to take a $2.7 million bid instead of a $2.2 million bid. 

“This federal program has operated like a racial quota system for decades,” he said. “Federal bureaucrats forced states like Idaho to reject better bids from qualified contractors, wasting roughly $15 million in just a few years by requiring states to award a certain percentage of contracts based on race and gender instead of merit.”

A 2009 MIT study found that affirmative action in contracting can increase the cost when comparing state contracts without preferences to federal contracts with preferences. The study found that bids without preferences were at least 5.6% lower than the preferential contract. 

Other states that signed onto the legal filing include North Dakota, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and the Arizona state legislature. 

“While the Biden Administration defended this system in court, President Trump is working to restore equality under the law,” Labrador said. “My office will continue fighting any federal program that forces states to treat citizens as members of groups rather than individuals with equal constitutional rights.”

The House Judiciary Committee is accusing the Biden-Harris administration of providing grant funds to groups that contributed to anti-judicial reform groups seeking to undermine Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in 2023.

“Documents obtained during this investigation suggest that the Biden-Harris administration potentially funded groups with ties to U.S.-designated terrorist organizations,” the Committee declared.

“Israeli NGO Blue White Future received funds from NGOs—including some U.S. grant recipients—and funded the coalition headquarters for the anti-Netanyahu judicial reform protest,” the Committee noted. “The Biden-Harris Administration provided $42,000 to an Israeli NGO, Movement for Quality Government, to conduct ‘Civic Activism Training’ in Israeli high schools. U.S. nonprofit PEF Israel Endowment Funds provided over $884 million to groups involved in anti-democracy protests in Israel. U.S. nonprofit Jewish Communal Fund (JCF) provided over $42.8 million to the anti-Netanyahu protest headquarters in Israel and the protests’ two main funders.”

In the Committee’s memo, it targeted the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors — which received $20 million in grants from USAID between 2021 and 2024 — stating that the group gave $187,000 between 2021 and 2024 to PEF Israel Endowment Funds, which helped fund the NGO Blue and White Future (BWF), a “radical anti-Netanyahu organization.”

“During this period, RPA donated $557,000 to its affiliate and partner, Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF),” the Committee stated. “In 2023, RBF donated more than $370,000 to groups directly involved in the anti-Netanyahu judicial reform protests … From 2017 to 2022, RBF donated $190,000 to Defense for International Children Palestine (DCI-P), designated by the Israeli Defense Ministry as a terrorist organization in 2021. DCI-P’s board and staff is made up of ‘numerous individuals with alleged ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization, designated as such by the US,  EU, Canada and Israel.”

“Since 2016, the Bayader Association for Environment and Development, an NGO based in Gaza, has received at least $900,000 in U.S. government funding despite ‘openly collaborating with Hamas officials, including holding joint events with Hamas leaders,” the Committee wrote. “USAID also funded the Unlimited Friends Association (UFA), another Gaza-based NGO that provides financial support to the families of ‘martyrs’ killed while carrying out terrorist attacks in Israel.”