Political Quotes

“I would respectfully disagree with the gentleman in his opposition. There are a couple of things that I think are important to be pointed out. As the vice chair of the Small Business Committee of the House, I continue to hear the stories from women-owned businesses, veteran businesses, minority-owned businesses, and those that are socially and economically disadvantaged, that they want this; that they believe that if you increase these goals, things then will change. By the way, these goals are aspirational; that is why they are called goals. This is not a mandate; not saying that we are going to move 1 year to another. It is all aspirational. And we believe it is the right thing to do; otherwise I don't know what we go back and say to those different groups of individuals. Now, Republican and Democratic Members alike on this committee have heard over and over again about how we ought to do more; how we ought to push the government to actually do what it ought to be doing in many respects. But, again, this is an aspirational goal. These are very, very small increases. And as we talk about defense contracting and the ability of minority businesses, women-owned businesses and, even more importantly, as I have said before, service- disabled veteran businesses to be able to compete with some real hope of being able to benefit. I would really urge passage of this amendment. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.”