USDOT launches local hiring pilot program

Updated Mar 6, 2015

USDOT United States Department of Transportation logoThe U.S. Department of Transportation is introducing a one-year pilot program through the Federal Highway Administration that allows local hiring provisions as part of contracting requirements.

The program, called Local Hire, is a result of a clarification by the Department of Justice of FHWA’s bidding statute that will allow such a provision as long as it does not “unduly restrict competition.”

“Under this program, recipients of highway and transit grants will be allowed to use hiring programs in which preference is given to local residents, low-income workers, and veterans,” Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx said in a statement.

Foxx said the DOT also is publishing a “Notice of Proposed Rule Making” that would amend the department’s Common Grant Rule that would allow all “recipients and subrecipients to use local hiring provisions for labor on DOT-assisted projects.”

Fox added, “The goal is simple: if a project is intended to benefit a community, lets allow the community access to the full promise of that benefit.”