On the recordApril 28, 2010
I would like to thank the gentlelady for offering this amendment and for her fierce advocacy for the people not only of the Milwaukee area, but small businesses across the country. The gentlelady is correct that one of the underlying ideas in this bill is that defense procurement organizations within the Department of Defense will be evaluated by measurements of how well they are doing their job. They in turn will measure contractors, prime contractors, on how well they are doing their job for the servicemember and for the taxpayer. One of the criteria by which the procurement organization should be measured and by which the prime contractors should be measured is their compliance with the law with respect to inclusion of small businesses. That is what the gentlelady's amendment does. We strive to include small businesses not only because we acknowledge on both sides of the aisle that small businesses are the economic generator of three-quarters of the private sector jobs created in our country, but also because we understand that competition that is engendered by the inclusion of more small businesses improves the quality and value of the contracting process, it improves the quality of what we're buying for the servicemembers and their families, and value for the taxpayer as well.
