Mike Conaway: “If I thought there was a mileage issue that made sense, then the proponent's amendment might make sense. But I quite…”

“If I thought there was a mileage issue that made sense, then the proponent's amendment might make sense. But I quite frankly don't believe that is the case. As my colleague from Pennsylvania said, if we need to streamline the processes within the Department of Defense acquisition to allow small businesses to compete regardless of where they are for some of this work, let's do that. But quite frankly, there is no--and my colleague made the point by saying, well, is it 60? It could be 60, 70, I mean, went up to 60,000-- that would be a bit of a stretch--miles. You can't use a miles fence. And so I am going to oppose the amendment because that's not the way. All of us are for small businesses. There is not anybody in here who is remotely going to stand up and say they are not for small business. We want small businesses to be able to compete. If there are systemic issues and barriers to them to be able to compete, then let's fix that as opposed to some sort of an artificial cone of protection around a particular set. The other point I would like to make is what if the subcontracting work that needs to be done is greater than--that would eat into the 40 percent is not available within the 60 miles? And so we just have that work not be done because we couldn't find a contractor.…”