Business Panel Meets to Discuss Challenges Within the Defense Industry

Statement

Representatives Bill Shuster (R-PA), Sam Graves (R-MO), and Allen West (R-FL) received inputs from nearly two dozen business leaders today in Florida as part of the House Armed Services Committee's Panel on Business Challenges within the Defense Industry. The roundtable, chaired by Rep. Shuster, is part of a larger series of roundtables and hearings designed to find smarter ways of doing business with the Defense Department. The discussion focused on eliminating excessive bureaucracy that stifles innovation and puts small businesses at a disadvantage in the defense industry.

Representatives Shuster, Graves and West made the following remarks:

"Today the Defense Business Panel met with a diverse group of small and medium scale businesses for a frank discussion on the challenges these businesses face in doing business with the Department of Defense. These roundtable discussions are a critical part of the panel's work, which is focused on removing barriers that prevent smaller companies from entering the defense industrial base," Panel Chairman Rep. Shuster said.

"As we continue to help provide a better environment for job creation, it is imperative that we hold events like today's roundtable to talk about the various bureaucratic impediments to small business contracting," Rep. Graves, Chairman, House Small Business Committee said.

"Our small businesses are hurting and anxious to get to work where they are needed and national security needs the kind of innovative and competitive spirit that only small businesses can bring," Rep. West said. "In order to do this successfully, we need predictability, certainty and stability in the defense industry."

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