Fairness to Veterans for Infrastructure Investment Act of 2015

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in opposition to H.R. 1694, the Fairness to Veterans for Infrastructure Investment Act of 2015.

As the Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies and the co-chair of the Military Family Caucus, I strongly support efforts to ensure veterans have access to opportunities needed to become successful in the workforce.

Simply, H.R. 1694 makes veterans compete against women- and minority-owned small businesses for an already small goal of ten percent of federal highway and transit construction contracts.

While I agree with the sponsor's stated goal of helping veterans and veteran-owned businesses, I do not believe that the best way to do so is by legally undermining the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program.

Instead, we should help both veterans and disadvantaged businesses succeed.

That is why I joined Representatives CUMMINGS, NORTON, BROWN, and BUSTOS in sponsoring H.R. 3997, which would create a Veteran-owned Business Enterprise (VBE) program within the Department of Transportation with a stated national goal of ensuring at least 10 percent of federal highway contracts go to veteran-owned small businesses.

Instead, creating a specific and separate contracting goal for veteran-owned businesses is a better way to maximize assistance to veterans, as opposed to forcing competition between these two constituencies, both of whom continue to suffer through disproportionately high unemployment rates.

I urge my colleagues to help veteran-owned businesses compete for Department of Transportation contracts without harming the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program by supporting H.R. 3997 and not H.R. 1694.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source