SPUR Act

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of my bill, the Small Business Procurement and Utilization Reform Act, also known as the SPUR Act.

I will begin by thanking my colleagues and friends from California and Washington, respectively, Representatives Cisneros and Gluesenkamp Perez, for their support of this legislation.

Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. They are the innovators, the job creators, and the driving force behind economic growth.

In Minnesota, small businesses account for over 99 percent of all businesses and employ over half of the workforce. It is no exaggeration to say that the success of our economy is tied to the success of our small businesses.

Despite government set-asides meant to help small businesses compete, participation in Federal contracting has dropped by 50 percent over the past decade. That means fewer small businesses are securing Federal contracts, and fewer are benefiting from the opportunity to grow and innovate.

The Federal Government is the largest purchaser of goods and services in the world. If we are serious about supporting small businesses, we need to ensure they have a fair shot at competing for these contracts.

Right now, the scorecard system measures whether agencies are meeting their small business contracting goals, but it fails to consider how many of those contracts go to first-time participants. Without this data, we don't know if new small businesses are successfully entering the marketplace or if the same firms are winning contracts year after year.

If small businesses can't break into Federal contracting, innovation is stifled, costs for taxpayers increase, and American entrepreneurs lose out on opportunities to grow.

My bill, the SPUR Act, addresses this issue by requiring the SBA to track and report the number of new small business participants into the Federal procurement space. This simple but crucial change will ensure that small businesses, especially new and growing ones, have a fair shot at competing.

Too many Federal agencies fall short of their small business contracting goals, leaving billions of dollars in contracts out of reach for American entrepreneurs. The SPUR Act will provide transparency and accountability, ensuring that the Federal Government is doing its part to support small businesses. I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, you are from the great State of New York. Forty-five years ago tonight, Team USA, led by Herb Brooks and 12 Minnesotans, beat Finland for the gold medal, and I congratulate them 45 years later.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Small Business Procurement and Utilization Reform, or SPUR, Act.

I thank Congressman Stauber and Congresswoman Gluesenkamp Perez for joining me in introducing this bipartisan legislation.

Mr. Speaker, small business owners and entrepreneurs take a chance when they start their ventures, so it is only right that the Federal Government do what it can to provide them with a greater opportunity to succeed.

Our government plays a vital role in working to keep our economy strong and vibrant, and Federal contracts can be a great opportunity and boon for our small businesses.

However, the government isn't doing enough to ensure our local small businesses have access to these opportunities. We need to not only do more for small businesses with existing Federal contracts but also help attract new small businesses to navigate the Federal contracting process.

The SPUR Act will help ensure more small businesses, like those in the San Gabriel Valley which I represent, can fairly compete for Federal contracts.

The SPUR Act will require Federal agencies to examine the following data:

How many small businesses received a prime contract for the first time and are owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans.

It will track the concerns of qualified HUBZone small businesses, track the concerns of businesses controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals, and track the concerns of small businesses owned and controlled by women.

There are several HUBZones in my district, including the cities of El Monte, Covina, Azusa, and La Puente. There are even more small businesses owned by women and people of color in my district. They are working just as hard as other small business owners to realize their dreams, and they deserve to play on the same level playing field as other small business owners that

have experience navigating the Federal bureaucracy.

I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense, bipartisan piece of legislation, and I thank, again, the co-leads of Congressman Stauber and Congresswoman Gluesenkamp Perez.

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

Mr. Speaker, I commend Representatives Stauber and Cisneros for their work to bring this important bipartisan legislation to the floor today.

Mr. Speaker, Congress and the executive branch have carefully crafted fair and deliberate policies to ensure that small businesses can compete for Federal contracts.

These policies, including and especially the small business procurement goals and set-aside authorities, have leveled the playing field for small businesses and enabled their participation in the Federal marketplace. They have a proven record of success.

Federal agencies award a record amount of contracting dollars to small businesses each year. However, many other factors, complexities, and policies, like category management and overly strict past performance requirements, are countering the impact of these programs. As a result, the government has over 40 percent fewer small businesses in its ecosystem than it did just a decade ago.

These trends mean that fewer small businesses are getting larger contracts and that contracts are becoming out of reach for many small businesses, especially those that are not already government contractors.

This legislation is a productive step that will help break that cycle. The SPUR Act will require SBA to take into account new small business government contractors when grading a Federal agency's performance toward meeting its small business goal.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Cisneros).

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 818) to amend the Small Business Act to include requirements relating to new small business entrants in the scorecard program, 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 rise in full support of H.R. 818, the SPUR Act, led by my colleagues Representatives Stauber, Cisneros, and Perez.

The SPUR Act is crucial in assessing the Federal Government's progress in bringing in new companies and expanding the industrial base.

Understanding the number of new small businesses engaged in government contracting will highlight the concerning decline in industrial base participation and track agencies' progress on rebuilding it.

Small businesses are an essential component of the United States industrial base. Despite their importance, over the last few decades, small businesses have been squeezed out of the industrial base at an alarming rate, with nearly half of the businesses leaving over the past 10 years. This threatens America's economic interests and strategic readiness, which must be remedied.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to vote for H.R. 818, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber).

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

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, on the morning of February 24, 2025, I was attending the University of Minnesota's National Security Research & Innovation Day in my district, and the flight I took back to Washington, D.C. was delayed departing from Minnesota. This resulted in my absence from the House during three suspension votes on February 24, 2025. Had I been present, I would have voted AYE on Roll Call No. 43, H.R. 825, the Assisting Small Businesses Not Fraudsters Act; Roll Call No. 44, H.R. 832, the Small Business Advocacy Improvements Act; and Roll Call No. 45, H.R. 818, the SPUR Act.