City leaders ponder repealing minority contracting programs due to pressure from Trump

City leaders ponder repealing minority contracting programs due to pressure from Trump

St. Louis officials are weighing whether to scrap a decades-old program that steered contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses, replacing it with a “race-neutral” initiative. The city already had paused the work of CertifySTL, the program started in 2023 under former Mayor Tishaura Jones that certified businesses as “minority owned.” The actions appear to be part of a broader response to the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle di…