Mike Conaway: “I have to oppose the gentleman from California's amendment. While it is straightforward, it is bad policy, quite…”

“I have to oppose the gentleman from California's amendment. While it is straightforward, it is bad policy, quite frankly. At first blush, where is the 60 miles? It just says ``military installations.'' If you go to Fort Hood, there are a lot of places around that are way further than 60 miles away from the west edge on the east side of the State. The amendment doesn't even say from the flagpole or the central location. Where do you measure the 60 miles? It's kind of a straightforward problem there. It also doesn't provide for historically underutilized businesses. So you've got an historically underutilized business, a HUB, that is 61 miles outside whatever the measurement might be. They would be excluded under this provision from competing for that 40 percent because they would be an arbitrary 61 miles, 60.5 miles, 60 miles and 1 foot--or whatever the criterion is--which is not stated in this amendment. You can't fence out competition. I understand that folks don't like to compete. This morning at baseball practice for the Republicans, we had a bunch of new guys out of the 87, and the coach said, Folks, all nine positions are up for competition. Well, I'm No. 2 on the depth chart. I'm not real happy about that, but it spurred me to compete better for that position. Competition works. It works for the big guys, and it works for the little guys.…”