Marlin Stutzman: “I thank the chairman for yielding. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support for H.R. 1657 that would revise the…”

“I thank the chairman for yielding. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support for H.R. 1657 that would revise the enforcement penalties for misrepresentation of a business concern as a small business concern owned and controlled by a veteran or a small business concern owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans. Section 502 of Public Law 105-50 set a goal for all Federal agencies to spend at least three percent of their procurement funds with small businesses owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans. On October 21, 2004, President Bush reinforced the Federal Government's 3 percent goals by signing Executive Order 13360. According to the Small Business Administration, at the time of that executive order, the overall Federal procurement from service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses was about .38 percent, or about one-tenth of the goal set by statute and executive order. Even the VA was short of the goal, spending about 1.3 percent service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. To help VA meet the goal, section 5 of Public Law 109-461 gave some new tools to the VA contracting staff that essentially gave service- disabled veteran-owned small businesses preference in small business set-aside contracts while not ignoring the VA's other statutory set- aside goals such as for firms qualified as HUBZone and minority-owned small businesses.…”