Rubén Hinojosa: “I rise today to help try to right a grievous wrong that America's small businesses have suffered far too long. Time and…”

“I rise today to help try to right a grievous wrong that America's small businesses have suffered far too long. Time and time again, we talk about how small businesses are the backbone of America. Why then, does it seem as if small businesses are constantly fighting an uphill battle? Take for example, the issue before us today, contract bundling. What could be more unfair? I am glad that as a body, we are taking a united stand today to try and change this practice and to hold Federal agencies that fail to provide a fair and competitive market for small businesses accountable for their actions. This is long overdue. You are going to hear numerous facts from my colleagues documenting why this practice is so abhorrent, but the point I want to make is-- wrong is wrong. We should all be starting from a level playing field. The Federal Government took on this responsibility when it promised small businesses would receive a fair opportunity to compete for Federal contracts. It has fallen short of meeting this promise. However, we don't know to what degree this has occurred. We do know that relying on contract bundling devastates small businesses and shows no measurable savings to American taxpayers. We do know that the Government awarded $200 billion in Federal contracts but small businesses only received $43 billion in contract dollars. We do know that this is clearly not a level playing field.”