Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I am honored to partner with the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Houlahan) to introduce the bipartisan Women-Owned Small Business Program Transparency Act. In 2014 and 2019, the Government Accountability Office found that the Women- Owned Small Business program has several oversight deficiencies and needs to release more in-depth performance metrics to ensure it addresses the needs of women-owned small businesses and the taxpayer. This legislation today addresses these concerns, requiring the Small Business Administration to annually disclose the total number of businesses that are certified as women-owned by the SBA, the number certified by third-party certifiers, and fees charged by third-party certifiers, the dollar amount and percent of contracts to women-owned small businesses, and the information on contracts incorrectly awarded. For over two decades, the Women-Owned Small Business program has set aside at least 5 percent Federal contracting dollars for certified women-owned small businesses. This plays a small, but important, part of ensuring that the Federal Government does not leave our Nation's small businesses behind and that we continue to have a robust and competitive contractor ecosystem to pull from. In New York's 22nd Congressional District, small businesses make up 94 percent of all employers, and I have witnessed firsthand the tremendous impact of women-owned small businesses. In fact, my own family business is a women-owned business.…”