Service-Disabled Veteran Opportunities in Small Business Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LaLOTA. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Williams for yielding, for his leadership in the Committee on Small Business, and most importantly for recognizing the importance of this legislation and its importance to the veterans community.

Mr. Speaker, America owes a great debt of gratitude to our service- disabled veterans. Those who have served our Nation in uniform deserve our utmost thanks, support, and respect. They put our great country before themselves.

As service-disabled veterans transition into civilian life and some look to enter the government contracting space, Congress must identify and implement ways to make that transition easier. My bipartisan bill does just that. The Service-Disabled Veteran Opportunities in Small Business Act will provide greater opportunities to our Nation's disabled veterans by increasing government contracting opportunities for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.

Currently, Federal agencies are required to contract with service- disabled veteran-owned small businesses for at least 5 percent of contracts awarded, yet the prior lower standard, 3 percent for all, wasn't even being met by many agencies.

My legislation will help solve that problem by requiring the Office of Veterans Business Development and the Small Business Administrator to provide training to Federal agency officials who fall below their procurement goals and issue guidance on best practices to increase the number of contracts to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to support the Service-Disabled Veteran Opportunities in Small Business Act.

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