Service-Disabled Veterans Small Business Continuation Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. DELGADO. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend and colleague Representative Schneider from Illinois for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the first bill I introduced as a Member of Congress, the bipartisan Service-Disabled Veterans Small Business Continuation Act.

This legislation which I introduced with Members from both sides of the aisle, Ranking Member Chabot, Congressman Jack Bergman, and Representative Correa, responds to the critical need to ensure that spouses of service-disabled veterans can start or continue operating a small business after the veteran's passing.

The spouses, families, and loved ones of our servicemembers carry enormous burdens. Not only do they make sacrifices to support their loved ones in the military, they are integral to the transition back to civilian life.

The Service-Disabled Veterans Small Business Continuation Act seeks to address one of the many burdens carried by the spouses of our military veterans. Rightfully so, both the Small Business Administration, and the VA give contracting preferences to small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans. However, currently, when the veteran dies, only a small handful of spouses can retain that contracting preference. That is because this contracting preference is only given to the spouses of veterans with a 100 percent disability.

Spouses of service-disabled veterans should be able to retain this preference regardless of the veteran's disability rating. This bill makes an important correction ensuring that all spouses of service-disabled veterans retain Federal contracting preference as a service-disabled veteran-owned small business no matter the severity of that veteran's injury.

This will give surviving spouses the opportunity to remain competitive in the Federal contracting market and help ensure that businesses are not upended after the death of their veteran spouse.

I want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their cooperation on this issue and commitment to the families and spouses of our veterans. Caring for our Nation's heroes should never be a partisan issue. I urge the House to support this legislation.

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