Tribal leaders from across the country spoke out today at a U.S. Senate hearing against possible changes to the Small Business Administration program that supports Native entities, including Alaska Native Corporations and tribes.
The 8(a) Business Development Program provides federal contracting opportunities to socially disadvantaged individuals or tribes. It is widely used by Alaska Native Corporations, especially when competing for Department of Defense contracts.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who co-led the oversight hearing, said it benefits both the U.S. government and Indigenous communities in Alaska and across the country.
“It delivers mission-critical work for civilian and defense agencies, and it promotes economic development in Native communities while helping to fulfill the federal trust responsibility,” Murkowski said.
But over the past year, the federal Small Business Administration and other agencies have launched audits into the program and announced a sweeping suspension of companies participating in it.
Referring to the program, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced on social media last month that his department would be “taking a sledgehammer to the oldest DEI program in the federal government.”
But Murkowski said that Native-owned businesses participate in the program because Congress recognized the government’s trust and treaty obligations to Native communities – which is not a racial relationship but a political one.
“That was not based on race, it was not based on DEI,” she said. “It's the modern extension of sovereign-to-sovereign relationships.
Murkowski pointed out that Kelly Loeffler, the head of the Small Business Administration, previously assured several concerned senators that Trump’s executive order to end “wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing” would not apply to activities that affect American Indians or Alaska Natives.
“Tribes are separate sovereigns,” Loeffler wrote.
At the Senate hearing, two of the four people who testified represented Alaska Native corporations.
Katherine Carlton, Inupiat from Cordova and the president of Chugach Alaska Corporation, told committee members that her organization has participated in the program for decades and has benefitted from its economic opportunities.
“For us, it provided the pathway to recover from the devastating Exxon Valdez oil spill in our region and rebuild our business,” Carlton said.
Carlton said revenue from 8(a) contracts helps Chugach pay dividends to shareholders and create jobs and other economic opportunities in villages where they are desperately needed.
“For instance, in Valdez, Alaska, we developed a workforce housing building there, which now employs people and also helps with the shortage of housing,” she said.
Another Alaska Native leader who testified at the hearing was Polly Watson, vice president of operations at Bristol Bay Native Corporation. She said her organization has several businesses participating in the program.
Watson, who is from the Alaska Peninsula village of Perryville, said the corporation invests revenue from government contracts in the community. She said one example is a partnership with the state Division of Motor Vehicles to deliver mobile DMV services.
“We have worked with the DMV to bring real ID and driver's license services to seven villages in the Bristol Bay region,” Watson said.
During the hearing, Murkowski acknowledged that Alaska Native Corporations recently faced pushback from shareholders for some business – like participating in contracts from the Department of Homeland Security for detention and deportation activities.
“But this is really what self determination is all about, right?” she said. “This is the opportunity, or the advantage of internal oversight mechanisms that allow community members to raise concerns, help influence the decision.”
Tribal leaders and senators from Nevada, Oklahoma, Montana and Hawaii all spoke in support of the Native participation in the 8(a) program. Murkowski said the committee will continue to take questions for the record for a couple weeks.
