Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of my amendment, which will strengthen small business participation in government contracts. In my district and across the country, small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Small businesses innovate, know how to operate on a tight budget and know how to create good-paying jobs. I want small businesses in places like Elgin, Illinois, to be able to win government contracts from the Department of Defense because I know they will do more with taxpayer dollars and provide superior products and services for our men and women in uniform. However, the government is lagging behind on awarding contracts to small businesses. We are not meeting our goal of 23 percent of contracts going to small businesses, and 23 percent is a pretty low bar that we should be raising even higher, not be struggling to meet. It is even more unfortunate that we are also failing to award enough contracts to women- and veteran-owned small businesses. My amendment seeks to remedy this problem by asking the Small Business Administration and Federal agencies to include remediation plans in their annual reports on small business contracting goals. The government should explain why it is not meeting its small business goals. It should identify faulty past practices and propose new practices to increase small business participation. We need an action plan to support our small businesses, and my amendment will do just that.…”