Senator plans bill opposing Native corporation advantage

A spokeswoman for the Missouri Democrat says the bill will be filed Wednesday or Thursday.

Spokeswoman Maria Speiser says the bill would, among other changes, strip the corporations of contracts with no monetary caps under a Small Business Administration program designed to help small disadvantaged firms.

The corporations would still be able to participate in the SBA program.

However, they would no longer enjoy the unprecedented benefits ushered through Congress two decades ago by then-Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

McCaskill, a former auditor, has said only a small percentage of the companies' profits are reaching Native shareholders and it's time to acknowledge the ineffectiveness of the advantage.

Under McCaskill's plan, Native corporations would have to qualify under the same rules as other program participants, such as being designated as socially disadvantaged business enterprises and managed by equally disadvantaged individuals. They also would have to meet size requirements.

The companies currently don't have to be managed by Alaska Natives.

Scores of regional and village corporations were created after the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was signed to compensate Alaska Natives for the loss of lands historically used or occupied. It appropriated more than $962 million and allowed the corporations to select 44 million acres of land.

Speiser said the corporations would still be able to receive no-bid contracts with $5.5 million caps for goods and $3.5 million for services. Larger contracts would require that they compete.

McCaskill has said she believes a number of Native corporations are too large to qualify as small businesses. She also has said the advantages need to be examined, given the astronomical increase in the contracts awarded to Alaska Native corporations and their hundreds of subsidiaries.