Daily Wire Reporter to Testify on Massive DEI Contract Fraud Before Senate

Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak will testify before the United States Senate this week regarding systematic waste, fraud, and abuse within one of the federal government’s largest diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The facts he will present should alarm every American taxpayer.

Rosiak will appear Wednesday before the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee at a hearing titled “Running Government Like a Small Business: Cut Waste, Crush Fraud.” His testimony will focus on the 8(a) program, a decades-old federal initiative that affects contracts across nearly all federal agencies.

Here is what you need to know about this program: It sets aside government contracts specifically for firms owned by members of certain “disadvantaged” classes, primarily racial and ethnic minorities. The premise itself raises constitutional questions, but the execution has been catastrophically worse than the theory.

Rosiak, who won the 2025 Dao Prize last month for his reporting on government waste, has documented extensive abuses within the 8(a) program. The Department of Justice discovered that the program had been exploited to facilitate a $550 million bribery scheme spanning several decades. Let that number sink in.

The mechanism of fraud is straightforward and predictable. Minority-owned businesses win federal contracts through a no-bid process, meaning without competitive bidding. They collect a substantial cut of taxpayer funds, then subcontract the actual work to another company. This “pass-through” fraud turns the 8(a) program into a legalized kickback scheme, with disadvantaged business owners serving as middlemen who extract fees for doing essentially nothing.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler are currently investigating the scope of this misuse. Independent journalist James O’Keefe has described it as a potential $100 billion scandal. If accurate, this would represent one of the largest fraudulent schemes in American government history.

Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, who chairs the small business committee, has responded with legislative action. She recently introduced the Stop 8(a) Contracting Fraud Act, which would place a hold on all new no-bid federal contracts until the 8(a) program undergoes a complete audit. This is precisely the kind of oversight that should have been implemented from the beginning.

The Biden administration dramatically expanded the 8(a) program as part of its broader DEI initiative. This expansion predictably created more opportunities for fraud rather than legitimate assistance to disadvantaged business owners. When government prioritizes identity characteristics over merit and competitive processes, corruption follows.

Ernst articulated the fundamental problem clearly: “If a small business treated their finances like the government treats tax dollars, they would go out of business. This has always been an issue in Washington, but under Joe Biden it became an all-you-can-eat buffet of waste, fraud, and abuse with criminals and con artists cashing in while hardworking Americans were left out in the cold.”

She is absolutely correct. Private businesses face bankruptcy when they mismanage funds. Government faces no such accountability, which is precisely why oversight hearings like this one matter.

Two additional witnesses will testify alongside Rosiak: Open the Books CEO John Hart and Courtney LaFountain, Acting Director of the Government Accountability Office. They will address other areas of waste, including misuse of COVID funds and USAID grants.

The hearing represents a critical step toward accountability. Americans deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent, and more importantly, how they are being stolen. DEI programs marketed as compassionate assistance have instead become vehicles for massive fraud. The 8(a) program exemplifies how good intentions, questionable constitutionality, and lack of oversight combine to create disaster.

The testimony will occur Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. Every member of Congress should attend and pay attention. The American people are watching.