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Dear USET/USET SPF Family,
Last month the Department of the Interior's Office of the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs (DOI-AS-IA) released the Buy Indian System for Award Management (BISAM) webpage. BISAM provides Indian businesses the ability to easily find Buy Indian set-aside procurement opportunities by consolidating all Indian Affairs, DOI bureaus, and Department of Health and Human Services, Indian Health Service SAM.gov opportunities into a one-stop, easily accessible and searchable platform. Should you have any questions on BISAM, please contact the Indian Affairs Acquisition office at biaq@bia,gov.
Background
Over the last two years, the DOI AS-IA has announced new regulations to improve implementation of the Buy Indian Act to promote economic development opportunities in Indian Country. The DOI AS-IA has also led an effort to strengthen policies and procedures, increase training and stakeholder engagement, develop performance goals for Indian Economic Enterprises (IEEs) and Indian Small Business Economic Enterprises (ISBEEs), and implement strategic acquisition set-aside contract awards for IEE and ISBEE vendors across DOI. As part of this effort, DOI bureaus awarded over $1.4 billion to IEE vendors across the nation during Fiscal Year 2023.
USET SPF submitted comments
to DOI AS-IA on June 25, 2021 in response to Tribal consultations held in June 2021 on proposed revisions to its Buy Indian Act regulations, as well as comments
on December 13, 2021 in response to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued by the DOI Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business. USET SPF supported the proposed revisions for increasing contract preferences for IEEs and ISBEEs and recommended that DOI increase accountability, communication, and evaluation on implementation of the Buy Indian Act, as well as expansion of the Act’s provisions across the whole of the federal government. DOI issued a Final Rule on April 8, 2022 and eliminated the restriction on IEEs from competing on “covered” construction contracts issued under the Buy Indian Act, expanded IEEs’ ability to subcontract work, gave greater preference to IEEs, and updated the process and thresholds for deviations.
For more information on federal procurement, please reach out to USET’s Economic Development Director, Rebecca Naragon, at rnaragon@usetinc.org.
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