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The Trump administration is continuing its crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In fact, just last month, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced his intention to take “a sledgehammer to the oldest DEI program in the federal government.”
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From the Daily Wire:
Last month, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth made a seismic announcement: “We’re 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’t heard of. It’s called the 8(a) program.”
We’re confident that Daily Wire readers knew about the program: Our own investigative reporter Luke Rosiak testified to the Senate about the fraud-ridden, multi-billion dollar minority contracting scheme just a month earlier. He’s written about it extensively for years. Under the decades-old 8(a) program, 5% of all federal contracts are “set aside” for minority- and women-owned businesses. That’s right — 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.
As Rosiak told the Senate, it opens the door to sordid corruption. When black businessman Walter Barnes got half a billion dollars 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.
Secretary Hegseth explained just how much his department is spending on DEI through this program. According to the Secretary, “In the Pentagon, $100 million sole-source contracts go out the door to these 8(a) firms almost every day.”
Not only are these businesses taking government money without competition, they are also, according to the Secretary, not even working. “They take a 10%, 20%, sometimes 50% fee off the top,” Secretary Hegseth added, “then pass the contract off to a giant consulting firm, commonly known as Beltway Bandits.” This has, in his words, created a breeding ground for fraud.
According to the Daily Wire, the “Beltway Bandits” refers to “biggest players in the government contracting business” in the D.C. area. Rather than fighting for competitive, direct contracts, these “bandits” use minorities as middleman to secure contracts under 8(a).
Secretary Hegseth may have exposed this embedded DEI program, but there’s still more work to be done. Let’s pray for Congress to act on this information, and let’s pray for an end to divisive DEI programs and policies in our nation!
How are you praying about the 8(a) program? Share your prayers and scriptures below.
(Excerpt from the Daily Wire. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Pete Hegseth, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=177116549)
