Not every participant in the 8(a) Business Development Program is owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. There are also a sizable number of entities that are owned by Native American tribes, Native Alaskan entities, Native Hawaiian organizations, either directly or through other entities (collectively, we’ll call them Tribally-Owned Entities). While the presumption of social disadvantage for 8(a) eligibility for members of certain ethnic and racial minorities was found unconstitutional (and is formally being removed), Tribally-Owned Entities go by a different set of rules that makes admission into the 8(a) Program easier. That does not, however, mean that these rules apply to any and all entities owned by a Native American or even where actions are supposedly taken on behalf of a Native American tribe. A company learned this the hard way in a recent SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) decision that we’ll explore today.
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Why File: An Appeal of an 8(a) Program Termination
In a previous blog post, Why File: An Appeal of SBA’s 8(a) Program Denial, we covered the process for appealing SBA’s denial of admission into the 8(a) Business Development Program (AKA 8(a) Program). We discussed what happens when a business is stopped at the door – denied entry altogether in the program. But what happens when a concern already admitted into the 8(a) Program is terminated by SBA? Here, we will touch on the arguably more consequential scenario of an 8(a) Program participant’s termination from the program. Specifically, the termination process, timing considerations, and OHA’s scope of review.
Continue readingBREAKING: SBA’s Newly-Released 8(a) Program Mandate with “Clarifying Guidance” Regarding Social Disadvantage Criteria Brings Far More Confusion Than “Clarity”
On January 22, 2026, SBA issued brand new “SBA Guidance” to its Office of Government Contracting and Business Development and its Office of Field Operations via a highly confusing 8(a) Program Mandate. On its Website, SBA labels it “Clarifying Guidance That Race-Based Discrimination is Not Tolerated in the 8(a) Program[,]” and further labels it the “Latest Action” in our Federal Government’s “Year-Long Effort to Dismantle DEI Discrimination, Expose Fraud, and Restore Fairness in Federal Contracting[.]” But no matter SBA’s intent behind it, this guidance does everything but clarify even a single aspect of SBA’s 8(a) Program eligibility rules and social disadvantage requirement.
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