Missouri governor rescinds purchasing goals order for businesses owned by women and minorities

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has rescinded an executive order that set modest goals for state agencies to make purchases from businesses owned by minorities and women, claiming the goals carried ''legal concerns."

Parson, a Republican serving his final months in office, rescinded 177 executive orders on Oct. 23, some of which dated to the 1980s, deeming them no longer ''necessary or applicable,'' the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday.

An executive order issued by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon in 2015 set goals for state agencies to purchase 10% of goods and services from companies owned by minorities and 10% from businesses owned by women.

Leaders of some organizations worried about the impact rescinding the order might have.

''What Missouri is doing is sending out a clear signal to anyone who has faced a barrier to participating in procurement,'' Nimrod Chapel Jr., president of the Missouri NAACP, told the Post-Dispatch. ''And that signal is: no need to apply.''

The governor's office cited legal concerns given recent court rulings'' as the grounds for rescinding Nixon's order. Parson's spokesman, Johnathan Shiflett, did not elaborate.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, declaring that race cannot be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies.

Meanwhile, a federal judge in Texas this year ordered a 55-year-old U.S. agency that caters to minority-owned businesses to serve people regardless of race, siding with white business owners who claimed the program discriminated against them. And in September, the Fearless Fund, an Atlanta-based venture capital firm, dropped a program that offered early stage investment to startups owned by Black women after a lawsuit challenged it.

Shiflett said in an email to the Post-Dispatch that requirements remain in state statute to certify that businesses are actually owned by minorities or women and that a requirement remains to develop plans ''to establish a state workforce which reflects the diversity of Missouri citizens.''

Rescinding the executive orders ''provides necessary flexibility'' for the state, Shiflett wrote.

David Jackson, a spokesman for the St. Louis-based African American Business and Contractors Association, said Parson's action could discourage local jurisdictions from maintaining their own minority hiring goals.

''This is very, very serious when it comes to the livelihood of small Black- and women-owned businesses,'' Jackson said. ''This is going to be very relevant with the next administration. If they see the same thing that Parson sees, these companies are in trouble.''

Missouri didn't always meet the 10% targets even with the rules in place. The Post-Dispatch cited a 2022 state report that found just 5% of contract spending for services went to minority-owned firms, and 4% went to female owned businesses.