Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McNerney), my good friend and a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. Mr. McNERNEY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the chairman and the ranking member for their work on behalf of our Nation's veterans, and for bringing the omnibus veterans bill to the floor today. In the United States, there are about 5 million veteran-owned businesses and an estimated 500,000 service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. Under current law, if a veteran who was rated 100 percent disabled and owned a service-disabled veteran-owned small business passes away, the surviving spouse has 10 years to transition the business away from service-disabled veteran-owned small business status. However, if the veteran business owner is rated less than 100 percent disabled, or dies of a non-service-connected injury, the surviving spouse has only 1 year to transition the business for contracts with the VA. Current law unfairly punishes these businesses and places them at an economic disadvantage. That is why I introduced H.R. 1313. My bill allows service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, whose principal owner passes away and was rated at less than 100 percent disabled at the time of death, with the reasonable 3-year transition period from service-disabled veteran-owned status with the VA.…”