Jan Meyers: “the gentlewoman from Illinois [Mrs. Collins] and I both are offering an amendment which would restore full and open…”

“the gentlewoman from Illinois [Mrs. Collins] and I both are offering an amendment which would restore full and open competition to bidding. Now, I know that the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Clinger] says that there is full and open competition in this bill, but it is defined as open access, which is then further defined, which then says that the regulators will really define what is full and open competition, and we can get into that more a little later. But to say that this bill has full and open competition is simply not accurate. The gentlewoman from Illinois [Mrs. Collins] will be offering an amendment that just restores full and open competition, and I will be offering an amendment that restores full and open competition but, in addition to that, seeks to set forth some processes to answer some of the very real concerns that the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Clinger] has. We want to give him some processes to screen out people early in the process that do not have a chance of winning the bid. After all, it is not to small business' benefit to put a lot of money into a bid they cannot win, and that is not to the benefit of the Government either, because it costs us time and money. So what we are trying to do is preserve real opportunity in the procurement process. Right now small business is a player in Federal procurement. Ninety percent of the firms providing supplies, services and construction for the Government are small businesses.”