The Buy Indian Act is a law that gives contracting preference to companies owned by Native American tribes and tribal members. This law has been on the books for a century and it seems to be finally getting some teeth through regulatory changes and updates. This webinar, presented by myself and Nicole Pottroff will discuss the Buy Indian Act, as well as other rules and regulations that provide advantages to tribal entities. Hope you can join us! Register here.
On January 13, 2022 the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued its Final Rule governing the implementation of the Buy Indian Act (Act). This rule clarifies the preference for Indian-owned and controlled businesses and removes barriers by alleviating unnecessary regulatory burdens. If you’re a frequent visitor to our blogs, you may be thinking, “wait what, didn’t you just blog about this last November?” Actually, the subject of the blog about the Buy Indian Act from November was the proposed rules governing the Buy Indian Act issued by the Department of Interior (DOI) covering procurements of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). HHS’s Final Rules issued on January 13th (Final Rule) supplement and amend regulations guiding implementation of the Buy Indian Act for procurements by the Indian Health Service (IHS).
Given the long scattershot implementation of the Buy Indian Act, how the Act it is applied to different agencies, the multiple notices of proposed changes to the Buy Indian Act, along with the general decentralized structure of procurement regulations, it can all be a bit confusing. A bit of background may help to put it all in context.
Continue readingThe Department of the Interior (DOI) proposes to revise regulations implementing the Buy Indian Act, which provides the Department with authority to set aside procurement contracts for Indian-owned and controlled businesses. The proposed rule is to revise current procurement regulations that have created barriers to Indian Economic Enterprises (IEEs) from full participation in the DOI’s procurement process. The proposed rule is here.
Continue readingThe Indian Health Service has released a proposed rule that will strengthen requirements for IHS to set aside contracts for businesses owned by tribal companies. The new rule should result in increased opportunities for native-owned businesses by bringing Buy Indian Act purchasing preferences in line with other purchasing policies such as the small business Rule of Two, and it’s about time, as this purchasing preference has been law for 110 years with little clarity on how agencies would enforce it.
Continue readingBuy Indian Act set-asides might increase following the Department of the Interior’s recent release of a Buy Indian Act National Policy Memorandum.
In the January 2016 Memorandum, the DOI establishes a policy of maximizing the use of the Buy Indian Act and increasing the number of Buy Indian Act set-asides. The Buy Indian Act Memorandum comes in the wake of a GAO Report issued last summer, which criticized the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service for their implementation of the Buy Indian Act.
In 1910, William Howard Taft lived in the White House, the Chicago Cubs were just two years removed from back-to-back World Series titles, and Arizona had yet to be admitted to the Union. That summer, Congress passed the Buy Indian Act, a statute authorizing a special federal contracting program for Indian-owned businesses.
Since then, it has been mostly downhill. It took the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) 103 years to issue regulations implementing the Act’s contracting preferences. Now that the regulations are finally in place, the Buy Indian Act program is suffering from lack of effective oversight and implementation. In fact, a recent GAO report found that the BIA and the Indian Health Service could not even clearly articulate whether Buy Indian Act set-aside contracts take priority over other set-asides.
If the Buy Indian Act is ever to live up to its potential, significant changes are needed.
After doubling up the Week In Review last Friday, we are back to our regular one-per-week format. Today, SmallGovCon Week In Review features stories about the GAO’s hard-hitting report on the Buy Indian program, a lengthy prison sentence for bribery of a VA official, the beginning of the fourth quarter “spending season,” and much more.