Antonio Delgado: “I thank my friend and colleague Representative Schneider from Illinois for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in…”

“I thank my friend and colleague Representative Schneider from Illinois for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the first bill I introduced as a Member of Congress, the bipartisan Service-Disabled Veterans Small Business Continuation Act. This legislation which I introduced with Members from both sides of the aisle, Ranking Member Chabot, Congressman Jack Bergman, and Representative Correa, responds to the critical need to ensure that spouses of service-disabled veterans can start or continue operating a small business after the veteran's passing. The spouses, families, and loved ones of our servicemembers carry enormous burdens. Not only do they make sacrifices to support their loved ones in the military, they are integral to the transition back to civilian life. The Service-Disabled Veterans Small Business Continuation Act seeks to address one of the many burdens carried by the spouses of our military veterans. Rightfully so, both the Small Business Administration, and the VA give contracting preferences to small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans. However, currently, when the veteran dies, only a small handful of spouses can retain that contracting preference. That is because this contracting preference is only given to the spouses of veterans with a 100 percent disability. Spouses of service-disabled veterans should be able to retain this preference regardless of the veteran's disability rating.…”