Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the Mfume-Neguse amendment which will codify Congress' support for small businesses across the country, particularly as it relates to this defense bill. This amendment increases the overall Federal contracting goal for eligible small businesses from 23 to 25 percent. But more specifically, the amendment also increases the Federal contracting subgoals in different areas. For example, for service-disabled veterans, who we always talk about and sometimes do something about, this is an important aspect of this amendment because, for service-disabled veterans, this increases the contracting goal from 3 to 4 percent, over a year or two. For qualified small businesses, it increases the Historically Underutilized Business Zone contracting goals from 3 to 4 percent. And for qualified women-owned and controlled businesses, it increases the contracting goals from 5 to 7 percent; which I think is significant for women-owned businesses and, as I said before, those disabled veteran businesses. For small businesses that are owned by socially-disadvantaged individuals, it increases the contracting goal to 15 percent, and it does that over 4 years incrementally.…”