Reversing Trump, Buttigieg reinstates local hiring program

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says he'll reinstate an Obama-era pilot program that aims to aid minority and disadvantaged groups by ensuring local hiring for public works construction projects

WASHINGTON -- Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday reinstated an Obama-era pilot program that aims to aid minority and disadvantaged people by ensuring local hiring for public works construction projects, reversing a decision by the Trump administration. Buttigieg made the announcement at an event at the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, which is decades old and is being modernized. The Transportation Department’s four-year pilot initiative, originally launched by the Obama administration in 2015, will permit state and local agencies receiving federal transit or highway money to impose local hiring preferences, such as those favoring veterans, minorities and low-income workers. The program had been scrapped by President Donald Trump in 2017, reverting to rules set during President Ronald Reagan's administration, which prohibited geographic-based hiring preferences.