Political Quotes

“I rise today to address the Department of Veterans Affairs' role in S. 633, the Small Business Contracting Fraud Prevention Act of 2011. As introduced, S. 633 contains a provision that would require the Department of Veterans Affairs, through its Center for Veterans Enterprise, to verify the status of any small business seeking to be registered as a veteran-owned or service-disabled veteran-owned small business. S. 633 would also require the head of each Federal agency to confirm the status of any service-disabled veteran-owned small business before permitting that business to compete for Federal sole-source or set-aside contracts. I agree that governmentwide verification of veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned small business status is an important step towards fraud prevention. But we must ensure that enactment of S. 633 does not add to the backlog of veterans currently awaiting verification of their small businesses, and that veterans' businesses are not unfairly delayed in their ability to compete for contracts. I am pleased that Senators Landrieu and Snowe have agreed to my amendment to S. 633. Under my amendment, the verification provisions in S. 633 would not take effect until the Department of Veterans Affairs first certifies it possesses the necessary resources and capacity to undertake the new requirements imposed by S. 633.…”