Last month, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth made a seismic announcement<\/a>: \u201cWe\u2019re taking a sledgehammer to the oldest DEI program in the federal government. A program few people outside of Washington have ever heard of. That I haven\u2019t heard of. It\u2019s called the 8(a) program.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019re confident that Daily Wire readers knew about the program: Our own investigative reporter Luke Rosiak testified<\/a> to the Senate about the fraud-ridden, multi-billion dollar minority contracting scheme just a month earlier. He\u2019s written about it extensively<\/a> for years. Under the decades-old 8(a) program, 5% of all federal contracts are \u201cset aside\u201d for minority- and women-owned businesses. That\u2019s right \u2014 instead of a competitive process that identifies the best company with the best value, government officials direct contracts to specific companies, with no bidding at all, based on minority status.<\/p>\n As Rosiak told the Senate, it opens the door to sordid corruption. When black businessman Walter Barnes got half a billion dollars<\/a> in USAID contracts by bribing a government procurement official with $1 million, the contracting officer was able to guarantee he could make good on the bribe only because the 8(a) program gave him that discretion.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t know if Hegseth was tuned in for Rosiak\u2019s testimony, but Hegseth laid out the issue as clearly as anyone.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the Pentagon, $100 million sole-source contracts go out the door to these 8(a) firms almost every day,\u201d Hegseth explained, \u201cwithout any competition or opportunity for anyone else to bid.\u201d<\/p>\n Hegseth continued: \u201cIn many, many instances, these socially disadvantaged businesses don\u2019t even do work. They take a 10%, 20%, sometimes 50% fee off the top, then pass the contract off to a giant consulting firm, commonly known as Beltway Bandits. For decades, this program, 8(a), has been a breeding ground for fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s talking about the Capital Beltway that surrounds Washington, D.C., where the biggest players in the government contracting business have learned to make hay out of 8(a). You see, rather than fighting only for direct contracts, the contractors based in D.C.\u2019s suburbs have learned that they can also seek the business of the minority middlemen.<\/p>\n This process is flagrant. In Dulles Airport\u2019s Terminal C, there\u2019s a giant advertisement from an 8(a) firm, seeking companies to \u201cpartner\u201d with. What it\u2019s saying is that if a company like Deloitte wants to get a giant contract, it should cut the 8(a) in on the deal. The minority firm will submit a \u201cjoint venture\u201d or \u201cmentor-protege\u201d application, letting government officials know with a wink and a nod that it will be Deloitte doing the work.<\/p>\n We are taking a sledgehammer to the oldest DEI program in the federal government\u2014the 8(a) program. pic.twitter.com\/c9iH8gcqG7<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) January 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n It works for everyone but taxpayers. The Beltway Bandit gets the contract without having to beat its rivals on price. A random minority gets a massive payday for brokering it. And the bureaucrats don\u2019t have to go through the hassle of a competitive bidding process \u2014 they can just send the money immediately out the door.<\/p>\n Perhaps some government employees are overpaid, but contractors are milking the taxpayers for orders of magnitude more.<\/p>\n As Rosiak told the Senate, a man named Atul Kathuria bought one of the most expensive homes in the D.C. region after getting $43 million in no-bid contracts because he is\u2026 wait for it\u2026 a person from the country of India working in IT. He is no \u201cslumdog millionaire\u201d \u2014 he went to Georgetown University and worked at massive consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton before shattering the glass ceiling to become the first Indian IT guy.<\/p>\n The Small Business Administration is in charge of determining who gets the sought-after \u201csocially disadvantaged\u201d superpowers, and its leader Kelly Loeffler has made serious strides at attacking the fraud. She required 8(a)s to turn over an unprecedented amount of information, down to bank account statements<\/a> and payroll records. The payroll records alone will be enough to prove that many of these companies are merely shells.<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/a> Feds Crack Down On Minority Contracting Schemes, D.C.\u2019s Worst-Kept Secret<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n But the Department of War getting in on 8(a) reform is where the real money is. As Hegseth said, the Pentagon gives out 10 times as many 8(a) contracts as the next-largest agency. That\u2019s because the Pentagon can give out up to $100 million contracts without competitive bidding if the business is \u201cdisadvantaged,\u201d while at other agencies the limit is $4.5 million or $7 million.<\/p>\n A constellation of fly-by-night brokerage firms has sprung up to cash in on this \u2014 one or two black men, or even white women, who get contracts and \u201cpartner\u201d with other companies to do the work. But the most notorious offenders are so-called \u201cSuper 8(a)s,\u201d which can engage in even more seedy business dealings because, in the government\u2019s eye, their owners have been even more oppressed: Those owned by Native American firms or Alaskan native tribes.<\/p>\n Here, again, we see how 8(a) is the Swamp that Donald Trump warned about. Alaska\u2019s senators, both Republicans, are secretly lobbying<\/a> to preserve the DEI program\u2013calling it, perversely, \u201cconservative\u201d and \u201cmarket-based.\u201d<\/p>\n We asked Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan how many people who worked at so-called \u201cAlaskan\u201d companies were actually Alaskan, and they wouldn\u2019t say. These are firms like Bowhead, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate whose leadership<\/a> is about as indigenous as Elizabeth Warren.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are skyscrapers down the street in Tysons Corner, defense contractors working on advanced weapons, that don\u2019t have to bid competitively for contracts because we say they\u2019re Alaskan Native Corporations,\u201d Rosiak testified to the Senate. \u201cBut every one of us here knows there aren\u2019t native Alaskans in those buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n The Alaskan senators gave away the game when they defended the program by praising the \u201cflexibility\u201d the 8(a) program offers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe consistently hear from top Pentagon officials that the 8(a) Program provides flexibility and timeliness in procuring weapons systems that strengthen our country,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n At least they\u2019re being honest. The purpose of 8(a) isn\u2019t to help minorities, it\u2019s to help lazy bureaucrats steer millions to big companies without having to fill out the paperwork.<\/p>\n If doing government procurement the right way takes too long, then fix that. But the 8(a) program must be abolished by Congress. Trying to stop the fraud is a fool\u2019s errand; fraudsters will simply find more clever ways to hide the fact that they\u2019re simply subcontracting out most of the work.<\/p>\n\n
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