{"id":13795,"date":"2025-09-28T01:20:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T01:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/atlantas-airport-loses-37-5m-over-diversity-program-stance\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T01:20:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T01:20:30","slug":"atlantas-airport-loses-37-5m-over-diversity-program-stance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/atlantas-airport-loses-37-5m-over-diversity-program-stance\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta\u2019s airport loses $37.5M over diversity program stance"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<p>                                <bsp-timestamp data-timestamp=\"1758918295000\" data-recent-thresholdinhours=\"1\">                    <template data-date-tpl>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]<\/template>                    <span data-date><\/span>                <\/bsp-timestamp>            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>                                        <bsp-page-actions>                            <\/bsp-page-actions>                                                                                            <\/div>\n<div>\n<p>ATLANTA (AP) &mdash; Atlanta&rsquo;s airport has forfeited at least $37.5 million because city leaders have refused to disavow diversity, equity and inclusion programs as mandated by President Donald Trump&rsquo;s administration.<\/p>\n<p><span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/business\/2025\/09\/dei-programs-cost-atlanta-airport-tens-of-millions-in-federal-grants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports<\/a><\/span>  that Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world&rsquo;s busiest airport by passenger traffic, declined on July 29 to agree to terms set out by the Federal Aviation Administration. Those terms certify that the airport doesn&rsquo;t &ldquo;operate any programs promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>That language mirrors a <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-executive-orders-dei-7ef0bf4ce1d465f6b61f3fcfde544593\">January executive order<\/a><\/span>  signed by Trump banning DEI programs operated by anyone doing business with or receiving money from the federal government.<\/p>\n<p>The FAA told the Atlanta airport, owned and controlled by the city government, that it was holding back $57 million, The Journal-Constitution reports. But federal authorities said $19 million of that money would be available to Atlanta in the next federal budget year if it agrees to the language then.<\/p>\n<p>The money would have gone to repave taxiways and renovate public restrooms, among other projects.<\/p>\n<p>The language could force the city to give up on a longstanding program that targets 25% of airport business for minority-owned firms and 10% for women-owned firms. Atlanta&rsquo;s first Black mayor, <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nhregister.com\/news\/article\/Former-Atlanta-Mayor-Maynard-Jackson-Dies-8776250.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Maynard Jackson<\/a><\/span>held up a $400 million airport expansion by insisting that a portion of the spending go to minorities and women. That project put Atlanta on the path to having the world&rsquo;s busiest airport, and the complex is now partially named for Jackson, along with former Mayor William Hartsfield. The city&rsquo;s minority business programs are credited with helping to bolster Black-owned businesses in Atlanta, <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/engineering-martin-luther-king-jr-african-americans-technology-race-and-ethnicity-b73e6174db924a72af215fb6f1548576\">burnishing the city&rsquo;s reputation<\/a><\/span>  as a place where Black people could advance materially.<\/p>\n<p>The newspaper found that Atlanta officials unsuccessfully tried to persuade the FAA to alter the language.<\/p>\n<p>A number of other local governments, including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and Minneapolis, <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.wawd.347622\/gov.uscourts.wawd.347622.184.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sued in May<\/a><\/span>  to stop Trump&rsquo;s DEI ban. They argue in a lawsuit filed in Seattle that Trump is usurping powers reserved to Congress by trying to impose funding conditions on congressionally approved grants. A judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from altering the grant conditions for the local governments that are suing, but not for any other governments.<\/p>\n<p>Atlanta Mayor <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/atlanta-mayor-andre-dickens-world-cup-georgia-17d21dd180e6476c253e53141e118e5b\">Andre Dickens<\/a><\/span>who is seeking reelection this year, has said he&rsquo;s considering changes to the program so the city could keep receiving federal money for a wide range of functions including the airport. Atlanta&rsquo;s officials are elected on a nonpartisan basis, but Dickens, who is Black, says he&rsquo;s Democrat.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The city is currently evaluating all options to ensure alignment with our long-held values, local policy, and federal law and we are confident that the airport will be well positioned to receive federal funds in the future,&rdquo; said Michael Smith, a spokesperson for Dickens. <\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, the airport plans to &ldquo;pursue alternative funding to advance these projects without impacting customers or airport service providers,&rdquo; although Smith didn&rsquo;t say where that money would come from. The city&rsquo;s policy has been to finance airport improvements solely with airport-generated income.<\/p>\n<p>In the year ended June 2024, the airport had $989 million in revenue and $845 million in expenses, according to a <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atlantaga.gov\/home\/showpublisheddocument\/64320\/638732217438130000\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">city financial report<\/a><\/span>. At the time, the airport had almost $1 billion in ongoing construction. Smith said federal funding is &ldquo;important&rdquo; but represents less than 10% of the airport&rsquo;s planned construction program over the next six years.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/atlanta-airport-diversity-trump-grants-cf585b2388e624c38540ea0ba381f30d\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] ATLANTA (AP) &mdash; Atlanta&rsquo;s airport has forfeited at least $37.5 million because city leaders have refused to disavow diversity, equity and inclusion programs as mandated by President Donald Trump&rsquo;s administration. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world&rsquo;s busiest airport by passenger traffic, declined on July [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}