“When Republicans have controlled the presidency and Congress, have they tried to do away with set-asides? “
I don’t know that they tried, but they have been a feature of government contractors through both Bushes at least. I’d guess, no.
A couple of years back it was determined that our local post office needed 2 handicapped parking spaces on a concrete pad.
Rather than hiring the contractor down the street who could have done it on a weekend they had to bring in multiple diversity contractors from Detroit. It took 3 weeks to do what the local guy could have done on a weekend.
The set asides are vehicles of corruption. Lots of so-called minority or female owned companies are just dummy companies set up just to take advantage of the set asides.
These, along with prevailing wage laws should be repealed.