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January 21, 2012 (Washington, DC) -- Congressman Bob Filner recently introduced legislation to ensure that the Department of Defense meets its obligation to contract with small businesses owned and controlled by service-connected disabled veterans.
“As a nation, we owe an immense debt of gratitude to the men and women who serve in our armed forces,” said Congressman Filner. “In that spirit, we must do all we can to ensure that disabled veterans’ businesses have every opportunity to succeed.”
Federal agencies have a government-wide goal that three percent of all federal contracts should be filled by service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs). Unfortunately this contracting goal often goes unmet at many agencies.
Congressman Filner’s bill, H.R. 3438, will ensure that the Department of Defense meets its obligation to America’s veterans by requiring the agency to award three percent of its contracts to SDVOSBs.
“The current state of affairs is unacceptable!” continued Congressman Filner. “It is unthinkable that an agency like the Department of Defense would not always fill its quota of hiring businesses owned and controlled by disabled veterans. This bill will ensure that disabled veterans’ businesses are not an afterthought in the government contracting process.”
Comments
We are behind you, Congressman!
"Federal agencies have a government-wide goal that three percent of all federal contracts should be filled by service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs). Unfortunately this contracting goal often goes unmet at many agencies."
We find that there is still a big disconnect between agencies and SDVOSBs... partially due to awareness but also due to factors related to the bid process. Sadly, we hear from many VeteranOwnedBusiness.com community members that are small SDVOSBs telling us they just don't have the time, experience, manpower and especially money to bid on government projects. Especially considering how some bids are filled with pages and pages of government speak (sometimes for very small projects) that most small, SDVOSBs don't understand and will just pass on. Personally, I don't see things getting much better until these things can be addressed for SDVOSBs. In short, it seems government work from the very start is made for businesses that understand the system and have personnel focused specifically on the bid process. Unfortunately this doesn't describe most SDVOSBs!
The good news is every day there is more and more legislation being introduced to-at the very least it seems--help bring the two sides together by way of awareness (purchasers and SDVOSBs). Congressman Filner, please let us know if you need any help on the private side with this. We have nearly 10,000 business members whose businesses are all proudly owned by military veterans; several thousand of which are SDVOSBs. One of our main objectives is to keep our members up-to-date with legislation that will (hopefully) help them grow their respective businesses. If there is anything we can do to help drum up support, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
Thank you very much, Congressman, for attacking this issue!