Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I, too, rise in support of H.R. 947, the Boosting Rates of American Veteran Employment Act, or BRAVE Act. I thank the vice chairman for his kind words on this bill, and I especially would like to thank the gentlewoman from New York (Miss Rice), an unwavering advocate of our veterans and author of this smart piece of legislation. Both parties agree it is unacceptable that men and women returning home from our most recent conflicts don't have good, reliable jobs waiting for them. We can start right here in the Federal Government. The VA establishes long-term contracts with private companies for medical equipment, construction, supplies, services, and more. Currently, the VA gives preferences to veteran-owned small businesses. That is great. What this piece of legislation does is expand this contracting preference to allow the VA Secretary to give a preference to companies that actively search out and employ veterans, a policy that would incentivize companies to even hire more veterans. This is already a smart approach for those companies because veterans bring to a job the skills they have learned over the years and make the company even stronger. This bipartisan piece of legislation adds no cost to the taxpayers. It allows for debarment of any company that knowingly misrepresents its portion of veteran employees in order to receive the contracting preference.…”