Protecting Business Opportunities for Veterans Act of 2017

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2749) to amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the oversight of contracts awarded by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to small business concerns owned and controlled by veterans, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2749, as amended, the Protecting Business Opportunities for Veterans Act of 2017.

H.R. 2749, as amended, is contracting reform legislation sponsored by my friends, General Bergman and Representative Kuster, the chairman and ranking member of our Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.

This bill will help stop companies that exploit the existing contracting laws and regulations to take work away from legitimate service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses and veteran-owned small businesses.

It is crucial that Federal procurement be fair and that veteran entrepreneurs actually receive the business opportunities that the law creates for them. This bill is a smart fix for a difficult problem, and I appreciate my colleagues' work on it.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support H.R. 2749, as amended, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bergman), a new member of our committee and chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support H.R. 2749, as amended, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak today on behalf of H.R. 2749, the Protecting Business Opportunities for Veterans Act of 2017. I thank the chairman and the ranking member for their support for Ranking Member Kuster and myself.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2749 aims to provide the VA with the tools it needs to correct the persistent problem in contracting. The problem is improper pass-throughs. An improper pass-through is when a small business obtains a contract under a set-aside, but gives all or substantially all of the work to a large company and, nonetheless, collects profit.

Sometimes multiple companies pass through the work while adding price markups. This has long been prohibited by law and wastes taxpayer dollars; but, in practice, agencies have little ability to stop it.

In the VA, veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses have special preference to receive contracts, but bad actors are taking contracts away from law-abiding veteran businessowners who truly want to perform their work. The committee gets complaints about this situation nearly every week.

This bill will make every bidder for a VA contract certify that it will perform the percentage of work the law already requires. The bill also directs the VA to work with the Office of Inspector General in a more effective way to find, stop, and, where appropriate, punish the improper pass-throughs.

H.R. 2749 relies on existing law and fills in gaps in implementation, but does not create any new bureaucracy.

The solution is long overdue. I strongly urge my colleagues to support the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2749, as amended, the Protecting Business Opportunities for Veterans Act.

I thank General Bergman and Ms. Kuster of New Hampshire for introducing this. The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations has worked hard to ensure that our service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses are provided the protections and support they need from the VA to remain competitive in the Federal contracting process.

Congress granted Federal Government contracting preferences to small businesses owned by veterans and service-disabled veterans because we want our veteran entrepreneurs to thrive.

This bill, introduced by Representatives Bergman and Kuster, closes a loophole utilized by some that pass through contracts to non-veteran- owned businesses. This practice is unfair to the thousands of small- business owners who are actually serving and owned by service-disabled veterans who play by the rules.

The bill ensures that only our veteran entrepreneurs get this preference by closing the loophole. It is smart, it is the right thing to do, and I urge its passage.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of this good piece of legislation that is doing the right thing, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.