Political Quotes

“I thank Ranking Member Chabot for yielding time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 8229, the Parity for HUBZone Appeals Act of 2020. I thank Ms. Houlahan for her collaboration on this important legislation. SBA's various small business contracting programs support different types of entrepreneurs, from women and service-disabled veterans to minorities and the economically disadvantaged, by providing these businesses with special Federal contracting preferences. Whether a business holds a specific status is critical in determining whether that company is eligible to compete for these special contract opportunities. Not only does the business have a vested interest in obtaining and maintaining its status, but the Federal Government also has an interest in making sure these special contracts are not awarded to fraudulent firms. If a company is suspected to be ineligible for a status it claims to hold, an interested party can protest the firm's status. Currently, for Historically Underutilized Business Zone-qualified, or HUBZone-qualified, small businesses, the final arbiter of a firm's special HUBZone status is the Associate Administrator of the Office of Government Contracting and Business Development, or AA-GCBD. This differs significantly from SBA's other Federal contracting programs in which SBA's Office of Hearings and Appeals, or OHA, is the final decisionmaker of a firm's protested status. OHA, unlike the AA-GCBD, is an independent office of the SBA.…”