Tom Feeney: “Reclaiming my time, I should point out that the minority happily worked on a manager's amendment, where we…”

“Reclaiming my time, I should point out that the minority happily worked on a manager's amendment, where we enthusiastically endorsed the concept that the administrator ought to contract with external organizations to facilitate new technologies for NASA to new businesses. And we were sort of provided this at the last moment. We don't really have a chance to examine what the effects are. There may be a contractor out there that only has one subcontractor. There may not be specific types of the businesses. Though I don't necessarily oppose the amendment, I would suggest that there may be practical problems depending on how this becomes interpreted, and suddenly, we're adding additional requirements. I think all of us want to help women-owned businesses. We've already done a scholarship today. I think minority-owned businesses are part of Federal contracting law. I think this specific language was designed to help all small businesses, without regard to what specific gender or ethnicity or background they had. We certainly support assistance in helping recently returned or long-standing veterans organizations. We don't object to the intent of the gentlelady's amendment. I guess we have some real concerns as a practical matter. Small contractors, we're trying to encourage, by the way, NASA not just to pick the Goliaths that then get to divvy out the work. We're trying to encourage NASA to get down and help do business directly with small contractors that are capable.”