James M. Talent: “There is not anything more important we can do for small business in a procurement issue than what we are doing with…”

“There is not anything more important we can do for small business in a procurement issue than what we are doing with this amendment. Bundling is choking small business. It is hurting the taxpayer. It is hurting quality. This amendment is a major step forward to limiting it to cases where it is truly appropriate. From 1992 through 2001, 44.5 percent of DOD procurement dollars were in bundled contracts and therefore essentially off limits to small business competition. So in each one of those, there were fewer competitors. There was a tendency to have higher price and poorer quality for the taxpayers. And small businesses, which are supposed to have preferences under the statutes, actually were foreclosed from bidding.”