Service-Disabled Veteran Opportunities in Small Business Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3511) to amend the Small Business Act to require training on increasing contract awards to small business concerns owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans, and for other purposes.

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 on the bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that this is the first of eight bills from the Committee on Small Business that we will

be considering today. That goes to show that the Committee on Small Business is a committee that gets things done, and I hope our Senate counterparts follow our lead to get these bills to the President's desk.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3511, the Service- Disabled Veteran Opportunities in Small Business Act, which is sponsored by my good friend, Representative LaLota, from the great State of New York.

H.R. 3511 builds on this Congress' dedication to America's veterans. Our country asks a lot from our brave servicemen and -women. Therefore, we must support them when they return to civilian life and ensure that they have a fair shot to succeed back home.

That is why this bill is critical to ensuring that our veterans are supported as entrepreneurs. The Federal Government is the largest consumer in the world, and each year, these agencies have a goal to spend a portion of their contracts with small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans.

In last year's NDAA, Congress raised the spending goal to 5 percent of all contracting dollars. Unfortunately, not every Federal agency has met its commitment to the men and women who bravely served our country. H.R. 3511 would remedy this by requiring the Small Business Administration to help failing agencies improve their inclusion of service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. Our veterans deserve to have every chance to succeed in the Federal contracting space.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to support H.R. 3511, and I urge all of my colleagues to vote for this bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. LaLota).

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense legislation that Mr. McGarvey and Mr. LaLota did a great job on, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3511, the Service-Disabled Veteran Opportunities in Small Business Act, which I am proud to lead with Representative LaLota.

I am grateful for his partnership, and I am grateful that the bill is on the floor today. I will echo the remarks of my colleague, Mr. LaLota. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the men and women who have put on the uniform who were willing to fight for us and, of course, were injured in their service. It is up to us to support our veterans coming out of the military as much as we support them going in, especially those who return with the wounds from their service, both visible and invisible.

So many veterans come home looking for ways to continue serving their communities, including by starting small businesses, and the Small Business Administration does a great job of connecting veteran and disabled veteran entrepreneurs to critical resources they need to start businesses, but the Federal Government must do more to ensure all veteran entrepreneurs have the tools and opportunities they need for their new businesses to thrive.

For disabled veteran entrepreneurs, opportunity can come in the form of sole-source or set-aside contracts, but Federal agencies all too often fail to meet their service-disabled vet contracting goals.

This bill requires the SBA to issue guidance to other Federal agencies to better meet the contracting goals for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses and it would additionally require the SBA to provide training to agencies that fail to meet these goals.

If the agencies fail to meet their contracting goals, then this bill requires a report to Congress detailing which agencies haven't met their goals so we can better understand what works, what doesn't, and what we can do to continue improving business opportunities for service-disabled veteran businessowners. We shouldn't stop until we are delivering on all of our promises.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this good bipartisan legislation and look forward to its passage today.

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

Mr. Speaker, today we are considering eight bills, six sponsored by Republicans and two by Democrats.

I look forward to working with the chairman to bring the additional five Democratic bills to the floor that were unanimously approved by the committee in a timely manner.

I thank my colleagues, Representatives LaLota and McGovern, for their work to bring this bill to the floor today.

In fiscal year 2022, Federal agencies awarded 4.57 percent of contract dollars and a record of just over $28 billion to service- disabled veteran-owned small businesses, but this number does not tell the whole story.

Every year, a handful of agencies do not meet their individual agency goals, showing that there is more that can be done. This legislation will require SBA to issue guidance and to provide training for agencies when they come up short. It is also important to highlight that Congress has raised the service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses' goal to 5 percent of Federal contracting dollars moving forward, so additional guidance and training will be timely.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. McGarvey), the ranking member of the Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Workforce Development Subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for the purpose of closing.

Mr. Speaker, the Federal procurement goals are one way that Congress helps to ensure that small business government contractors can enter, compete, and remain in the Federal marketplace and that they receive a fair share of contracting dollars when doing so.

This bill will provide agencies with additional tools and training to maximize awards to firms owned by service-disabled veterans and meet their small business goals.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the work of my colleagues on this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Williams for yielding, for his leadership in the Committee on Small Business, and most importantly for recognizing the importance of this legislation and its importance to the veterans community.

Mr. Speaker, America owes a great debt of gratitude to our service- disabled veterans. Those who have served our Nation in uniform deserve our utmost thanks, support, and respect. They put our great country before themselves.

As service-disabled veterans transition into civilian life and some look to enter the government contracting space, Congress must identify and implement ways to make that transition easier. My bipartisan bill does just that. The Service-Disabled Veteran Opportunities in Small Business Act will provide greater opportunities to our Nation's disabled veterans by increasing government contracting opportunities for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.

Currently, Federal agencies are required to contract with service- disabled veteran-owned small businesses for at least 5 percent of contracts awarded, yet the prior lower standard, 3 percent for all, wasn't even being met by many agencies.

My legislation will help solve that problem by requiring the Office of Veterans Business Development and the Small Business Administrator to provide training to Federal agency officials who fall below their procurement goals and issue guidance on best practices to increase the number of contracts to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to support the Service-Disabled Veteran Opportunities in Small Business Act.