Tribal-owned firms want answers about state of 8(a) program

The number of contract awards to 8(a) small businesses are down across the government. But Native American, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian-owned companies are feeling the brunt of the downturn.

Through April awards to companies in Indian country have dropped by 26%, or $800 million, as compared to 2025.

It’s not just contract dollars that’s concerning to native corporations, the Small Business Administration has slowed down the approval of new applications to the 8(a) program. SBA hasn’t processed an application since August and only approved about 65 new 8(a) firms in all of 2025.

Haven Harris, the board co-chairman of the Native American Contractors Association (NACA) and the senior vice president of growth and strategy for the Bering Straits Native Corporation, said all of these changes are having a significant impact on member companies and communities at large.

“Many of our members are sitting here looking at the 8(a) program and seeing the lifeline and the timeline that they have to work with very, very compressed. As you know in any business, they have to have some sureness, some ability to plan multiple years in advance to make investments,” Harris said in an interview with Federal News Network. “It become very, very difficult for our members to make those plans to make those investments without some surety that they’re going to be able to continue in the 8(a) program with new subsidiaries and with new opportunities.”

NACA’s growing frustrations and concerns finally led them ask SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler on Monday for more information and more surety about the 8(a) program.

“The 8(a) Business Development Program remains a vital pathway for Native community-owned small businesses to access federal contracting opportunities, strengthen organizational capacity and contribute to the national economy. For many Native communities, federal contracting represents a significant source of economic activity, with resulting revenues supporting essential services such as healthcare, education, infrastructure, and public safety,” NACA wrote in a letter. “Participation in the program plays an important role in fostering economic stability and long-term growth within these communities.”

NACA is asking SBA for two things:

• Resume the timely review and determination of all pending Native community participant 8(a) applications consistent with [the law], including the 15-day completeness determination and the 90-day processing period after an application package is deemed complete;
• Provide clear and transparent communication to pending applicants, including an anticipated timeline for when application determinations may be issued.

Harris said NACA, like many associations, has been hesitant to push back too hard on the administration as they put the 8(a) program in the center of their battle against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

More questions than answers

NACA has tried to talk to SBA and members of Congress to offer them a better understanding of their members’ concerns and challenges, but the organization hasn’t received any satisfactory answers.

“If we had that insight, the ability to plan and just an open dialog where we felt we were able to come and sit at the table as equals, then we would have a lot more certainty in how to work with this administration,” he said. “Plus, we know historically, and there have been times of crisis when there’s been need for immediate access to government contracting capabilities that the 8(a) program has been very, very valuable to the to the US government.”

The tipping point for NACA and other Indian associations came as the delays in processing new 8(a) applications isn’t letting up.

“What we’re really hoping is to get some insight on whether there is a plan to clear up that backlog. Is there a plan to go forward with applications? Do they have a rough timeline? Is it a staffing issue or a regulatory issue, or if there’s something else floating out there in the ethers that we’re not aware of that’s making it difficult, please just be in contact with us,” Harris said. “Unfortunately, at this time, we haven’t got a lot of that explanation. Probably the maximum amount of insight we’ve gotten, and this has been said in public by various members of the SBA, is that they felt the previous administration was way too lax in letting new entrants into the program, and so they’re doing a more thorough job, as they are examining these applications. However, I’ve done these applications myself in the past. I know what they entail, and these should not require 18 months for review. As our stance, we just want to be able to give our members and other members in the 8(a) community at large the opportunity to get some information and to be able to look at timelines so that business owners, whether they’re native or not, are able to make assessments on whether, what type of investments they should be making, whether they should even try to join the 8(a) program.”

Outside of the delays in applications, Harris said the decrease in overall obligations and contract awards also is concerning.

Native Hawaiian organizations are seeing the largest drop of more than 66%. Alaskan Native corporations are seeing a decrease in obligations by 46% and Native American tribal owned companies have seen reductions by 40%.

Across the entire 8(a) program obligations are down by 42%, or about $6 billion. And 8(a) sole source awards are down by 50% or about $1.7 billion.

Nicole Borromeo, the president of the Alaskan Native Claims Settlement Act Regional Association, said her members have expressed similar concerns about the changes to the 8(a) program. In mid-April the association had their annual Alaska on the Hill day.

Borromeo said one big message to lawmakers is the 8(a) program is working as Congress intended.

“The administration and Congress, from the ARA’s point of view, understands that there’s a few bad apples in the bunch. But the message also is, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Deal with those bad actors on a case-by-case basis, and leave the structure that Congress intended in place,” Borromeo said in an interview. “But I will also say the structure has also accounted for those bad apples. Often cases of fraud, waste and abuse are discovered quickly. They are dealt with fairly, and the program continues on without missing a beat because of the checks and balances that are in the program. In order to participate in the 8(a) program, firms have to meet very rigorous standards, even to get a look at once they’re in the program, they have to maintain those rigorous standards, and then they have to pass rigorous audits. So I’m not worried about bad actors. They’re going to be rooted out very quickly and discovered.”

These native companies send hundreds of millions of dollars back to their communities.

Borromeo said Alaska Native corporations have set aside almost $200 million in scholarships for Alaska Native shareholders and their descendants — and that type of investment doesn’t happen without planning and opportunities like the 8(a) program.

Harris added the 8(a) program brings jobs not just to places like Alaska or Arizona or New Mexico, but across nearly all states.

New bill to change Small Business Act

Government contracting is the second largest economic driver in Indian Country, only behind gaming.

“So much of this money gets driven back to our people, directly, providing healthcare benefits, providing education, oftentimes, scholarships and these dollars are utilized, both by tribal governments, by the Native corporations, by the Native Hawaiians, to really try to uplift our people,” Harris said. “Again, we are often sitting in areas that have the worst economic numbers in any state that we’re in. We often have the worst social indicators. And for me, as a native man, I just want to see us having as much opportunity as possible to uplift our people, to bring them up to the same standards that people are living in in the rest of the United States. In my home region, we still have people that are utilizing honey buckets [port-a-potties]. We have people that don’t have running water. This isn’t a third world country. These are citizens of the United States. So when we as Native Americans are looking at the 8(a) program or government contracting as a whole, we see this as another way to lift our people up.”

Along with the delays in the 8(a) program, small business contracting more broadly is coming under even more pressure from lawmakers. A new bill from Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Congressman Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) would end awards based on the recipients’ sex or race.

The Ending Discrimination in Government Contracting Act would do several things to change the Small Business Act, including eliminating existing quotas, mandates and programs that provide government contracting opportunities to companies based on the race and/or sex of the company’s owner.

This means it would end the statutory authority for the women-owned small business and remove the term economically disadvantaged women-women small business from socio economic programs. Additionally, the bill would eliminate the 5% prime contracting goal for women-owned small firms.

Additionally, large companies would be held less accountable for meeting subcontracting goals for women and small disadvantaged businesses.

Lee and Grothman introduced a similar bill in November 2024, but that bill never got out committee.

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