Nydia M. Velazquez: “today we will pass this Small Business Administration reauthorization bill which provides valuable resources to a number…”

“today we will pass this Small Business Administration reauthorization bill which provides valuable resources to a number of vital programs. While I have worked hard in support of those programs, I rise today to address some elements of the bill that I believe require further discussion. The House Committee on Small Business, under the effective leadership of the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Talent] and the ranking Democrat, the gentleman from New York [Mr. LaFalce], worked very hard to report out a bill that would have helped small business. Unfortunately we are not considering the product of our committee's work today. Instead we are considering a bill from the other body that creates a multibillion-dollar, I repeat multibillion-dollar, contracting program. This proposal called HUBZones was never introduced in the House. This unstudied and untested program has not even had one hearing, not in the Committee on Small Business, the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, the Committee on Education and the Workforce, or the Committee on National Security, all of which would have jurisdiction over the HUB's provisions. Because of this failure to properly examine this program, I have my concerns about this proposal. This program raises many serious questions. How will HUBZones work? What kind of jobs will it create? What kind of small businesses will it benefit? How will we measure its effectiveness?”