1. (1) the State of Maryland seeks to ensure that all citizens of the State have equal access to business formation and business growth opportunities;
2. (2) the elimination of discrimination against minority- and women-owned businesses is of paramount importance to the future welfare of all Marylanders and the State;
3. (3) the General Assembly has accepted and carefully reviewed the disparity study entitled “State of Maryland 2025 Minority Business Enterprise Disparity Study” (the Study) and finds that the Study provides a strong basis in evidence demonstrating persistent intentional discrimination against minority- and women-owned businesses;

4. (4) based on the review by the General Assembly of the Study, the General Assembly finds that:

   1. (i) based on rigorous econometrics analyses that control for key factors, there are substantial and statistically significant adverse disparities that are consistent with discrimination against minorities and nonminority women in wages, firm formation, entrepreneurial earnings, and access to capital in the private sector in the same geographic markets and industry categories in which the State does business;
   2. (ii) a thorough examination of the literature reveals severe and persistent intentional disparities and discrimination in access to private business capital markets that in some cases have been caused by government policies;
   3. (iii) the State would become a passive participant in private sector racial and gender discrimination if it ceased or curtailed remedial efforts of the State, including the operation of the Minority Business Enterprise Program;
   4. (iv) there are substantial, adverse, and statistically significant disparities that are consistent with discrimination against minorities and nonminority women in State procurement;
   5. (v) these substantial, adverse, and statistically significant disparities are consistent with discrimination against all minority groups and for nonminority women in most major industry categories in State procurement;
   6. (vi) there is significant evidence that discrimination in the private sector has depressed firm formation and firm growth among minority and nonminority women entrepreneurs, decreasing the availability of minority- and women-owned firms for public and private contracting; and
   7. (vii) there is powerful and persuasive evidence, both statistical and qualitative, of intentional discrimination, including discrimination by government actors, against minority and nonminority women business owners in both the public and private sectors;
5. (5) as a result of ongoing discrimination and the present-day effects of past discrimination, minority- and women-owned businesses combined continue to be significantly underutilized relative to the availability of minority- and women-owned businesses to perform work in the overwhelming majority of the procurement categories in which the State does business;
6. (6) minority prime contractors also are subject to discrimination and confront especially daunting barriers in attempting to compete with very large and long-established nonminority companies;
7. (7) despite the fact that the State has employed, and continues to employ, numerous and robust race-neutral remedies, including aggressive outreach and advertising, training and education, small business programs, efforts to improve access to capital, and other efforts, there is a strong basis in evidence that discrimination persists even in public sector procurement in which these efforts have been employed;
8. (8) notwithstanding the levels of participation achieved when race-conscious measures are used, there is concern that, in the absence of Minority Business Enterprise participation goals for State procurement, there would be a substantial decrease in the overall utilization of minority- and women-owned businesses;
9. (9) this subtitle ensures that race-neutral efforts will be used to the maximum extent feasible and that race-conscious measures will be used only where necessary to eliminate discrimination that was not alleviated by race-neutral efforts;
10. (10) this subtitle continues and enhances efforts to ensure that the State limits the burden on nonminority, male-owned businesses as much as possible by ensuring that all goals are developed using the best available data, waivers are available whenever contractors make good faith efforts, and that nonminority men may qualify for certification if nonminority men are socially and economically disadvantaged;
11. (11) this subtitle ensures that the operation of the Minority Business Enterprise Program is consistent with the Study data and narrowly tailored to the compelling interests of the State; and
12. (12) State efforts to reduce discrimination support the development of competitively viable minority- and women-owned business enterprises and create jobs for all citizens of Maryland, help grow the Maryland economy, and foster competition that will reduce the cost of goods and services procured by the State.

The General Assembly finds the following:

Added by Acts 2026, c. 82, § 2, eff. June 1, 2026.