On the recordJune 20, 2014
I appreciate the recognition, and I appreciate the gentleman's emphasis on competition. I also appreciate the fact that he is concerned about the industrial base and manufacturing in the United States of America. We have seen a collapse in manufacturing employment. I would just point out for my colleagues, though, that the emphasis relative to the standards the gentleman is concerned about is to try to build that small business base. I remain disappointed in the Department of Defense because, while they talk about building small businesses, improving that manufacturing base, I don't see many discernible results. In my own district, I had a firm that does very sophisticated technology work, a very small firm. They had to spend more than $1 million cash to go through the evaluation process so they could start to bid on military contracts. There are not many small businesses with less than 20 employees that have $1 million in cash to go through an approval process so they can start doing business with the Department of Defense, so I share his concerns. But I also just want to make note that we have to draw the Department's attention to small business manufacturing development in the United States. Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
