ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - St. Louis will be restarting its minority contracting program, but with new rules in place, with a hope to protect its federal funding.

A month ago, Mayor Cara Spencer announced the program would be paused as the Trump administration threatened to pull funding from diversity initiatives nationwide.

The program helps women and minority-owned businesses bid for contracts, like construction and road work.

The mayor’s office says they consulted legal experts and tweaked the program to have equity hiring goals on each project, rather than uniform targets.

Spencer says the pause was needed to ensure federal funding wasn’t jeopardized, especially following the May 16 tornado.

A study last year found there were substantial disparities when it came to Black, Hi

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