January 2026: TRUMP PRESIDENCY Hegseth Takes "Sledgehammer" To Nation's Largest DEI Program

Hegseth Takes "Sledgehammer" To Nation's Largest DEI Program
"The Small Business Administration's crackdown on Washington's oldest DEI program, otherwise known as the 8(a) program for "socially disadvantaged" businesses, which has largely amounted to a major vector for fraud, pass-through schemes, and artificially inflated contract costs, has expanded to the Department of War.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth revealed late Friday on X that his team is "taking a sledgehammer to THE OLDEST DEI program in federal government…a program few people outside of Washington have ever heard about! It is called the 8(a) program.
Providing these small businesses with opportunities is a laudable

goal but over decades as it happens the 8(a) program has morphed into swamp code words for DEI race based contracting. And here's the worst part – in many, many instances these socially disadvantaged businesses don't even do the work!" Hegseth said, adding, "They take a 10%, 20% sometimes 50 percent fee off the top and then pass the contract to giant consulting firms commonly known as Beltway Bandits. For decades this is what they've been doing…for years now. This program, 8(a) has been a breeding ground for fraud. And this administration is finally doing something about it."
Hegseth revealed that the DoW will begin an audit of every small-business sole-source contract over $20 million. He noted that the DoW accounts for the largest share of 8(a) spending by far, roughly 10 times that of any other agency. As a result, the cleanup, he said, will be more complex but will still accomplish the mission because "We have no room in our budget for wasteful DEI contracts that don't help us win wars. Period. Full stop. Second, we're doing away with these pass-through schemes." 

ZeroHedge