Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Texas, and I rise in opposition to this amendment. We on this side of the aisle do stand with small business; but this is an arbitrary amendment, sets up arbitrary mileage, dollar amounts that is not going to get at the heart of the problem. I agree with the ranking member that the big boys, one-size-fits-all doesn't always work. But we have to figure out a process and put it in place that is going to streamline the process for small business, not set up, as I said, arbitrary mileage and dollar amounts that are going to, I believe, hurt small business. There will be small businesses that are outside that 60-mile area that can't come in and compete. And when you reduce competition, you drive up costs. We want to see competition. This amendment, there is no waiver in it to provisions or any consideration for special needs for the DOD, including urgency of mission or direct support to the warfighter. It adds additional steps in the contracting process. It requires the DOD to devote additional time and resources to monitoring contracts, once again driving up costs and the complexity. In addition, contractors must devote additional time to comply with the requirements and expand resources on reporting compliance, driving costs further up on these costs. This is not going to, again, help small businesses. I believe it's going to hurt them.…”