Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Jan. 16 lambasted a decades-old contracting program that provides business opportunities for small and disadvantaged businesses, calling it a breeding ground for fraud and disparaging it as a “DEI” effort.
But experts and an executive from a firm that uses such contracts say the level of fraud critics like Hegseth alleged has been greatly exaggerated.
Some fear the harsh rhetoric around the program signals a desire to eliminate it, which they say would hurt small businesses and the Pentagon’s ability to quickly respond to unfolding emergencies.
In a video posted on social media, Hegseth described the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program in harsh terms, connecting it with diversity programs he has strongly criticized and ordering a strict review.
“We’re actually taking a sledgehammer to the oldest DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] program in the federal government,” Hegseth said. “A program few people outside of Washington have ever heard of, that I hadn’t heard of. It’s called the 8(a) program.”
It helps to cut the middle man which yes is usually a white dude vet with a minority to up those points. But that means it’s doing what it’s intended. Now they are arguing literally that the small guys just go to the big guys so why not just have the big guys take over.
Idk about you but that’s just more concentrated wealth going to the same people. It is a shit idea from a shit person. He is a corporate shill. Kegsbreath.