FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November 26, 2018
Washington, D.C.
—On November 13-15, 2018, the Native American Contractors Association (NACA) hosted its
6th Annual Federal Contracting Policy and Advocacy Conference
to numerous attendees, including small business government contractors, federal agency officials, Congressional Members, subject matter expert educators, national organizations, and private practice lawmakers. To kick off the event, President Kimberly Teehee, Cherokee Nation, addressed the attendees, providing an overview of the work of the organization which highlighted NACA’s advocacy efforts, including testifying on Indian Community Economic Enhancement Act” and S. 607 “The Native American Business Incubators Program Act” and securing language in the 2018 NDAA bill that addressed security clearance backlogs and lowest price technically acceptable practices. General sessions offered featured expert speakers and included briefings on the impact of the Mid Term elections, as well as, Small Business Administration (SBA) policy and programming changes. SBA officials and other experts offered recommendations for Tribally-owned, Alaska Native Corporation, and Native Hawaiian owned small businesses to best maneuver these changes. Stakeholders also heard from Department of Defense, Small Business Program leadership on contract programming projections for 2019. General sessions were followed by a stretch of breakout sessions featuring presentations of various topic.
On Wednesday, November 14th, NACA honored Senator Dan Sullivan with the inaugural
2018 Congressional Award for Excellence in Native Contracting
during a congressional luncheon among event attendees. NACA issued the award on behalf of its members, recognizing Senator Sullivan and his staff for the agreements they have been able to secure in support of Native-owned small business enterprises. Senator Sullivan’s work to advance Native contracting is a testament to his industrious efforts to strengthen the national defense. Supporting a strong national defense is one of the key attributes of Native contracting, and NACA is proud to have worked with the Senator on a wide variety of issues of critical importance to Native contractors and the communities it serves. The award was presented by the 2018 NACA Board of Directors and followed with a keynote address provided by the Senator himself.
In conjunction with the event, NACA also organized its annual meeting of membership and board of director elections. Resulting from the elections process, two newly elected directors were appointed to the board. The 2018-2019 NACA Board of Directors are:
