Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of my bill, the Small Business Procurement and Utilization Reform Act, also known as the SPUR Act. I will begin by thanking my colleagues and friends from California and Washington, respectively, Representatives Cisneros and Gluesenkamp Perez, for their support of this legislation. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. They are the innovators, the job creators, and the driving force behind economic growth. In Minnesota, small businesses account for over 99 percent of all businesses and employ over half of the workforce. It is no exaggeration to say that the success of our economy is tied to the success of our small businesses. Despite government set-asides meant to help small businesses compete, participation in Federal contracting has dropped by 50 percent over the past decade. That means fewer small businesses are securing Federal contracts, and fewer are benefiting from the opportunity to grow and innovate. The Federal Government is the largest purchaser of goods and services in the world. If we are serious about supporting small businesses, we need to ensure they have a fair shot at competing for these contracts. {time} 1630 Right now, the scorecard system measures whether agencies are meeting their small business contracting goals, but it fails to consider how many of those contracts go to first-time participants.…”