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“FAIRNESS TO VETERANS FOR INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT ACT OF 2015” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H8250 on Nov. 17, 2015.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
FAIRNESS TO VETERANS FOR INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT ACT OF 2015
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn) for 5 minutes.
Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my strong opposition to H.R. 1694, which was debated by this House under the suspension of the rules yesterday.
H.R. 1694 purports to be about fairness to veterans. Well, Mr. Speaker, there is nothing fair about pitting veterans against women- and minority-owned businesses for an already meager goal of 10 percent of Federal highway and transit construction contracts.
If the sponsor of H.R. 1694 really wanted to create a new veterans preference system at the Department of Transportation, he would have worked with Mr. Cummings and Ms. Norton when offered the opportunity to do so over a year ago. If my colleague really wanted to create a new veterans preference system, he would have cosponsored legislation to establish a specific and separate contracting goal for veteran-owned small businesses through the creation of a veteran-owned business enterprise program.
The gentleman from Pennsylvania has done neither. Instead, he chose to put forth legislation that threatens to inflict irreparable harm on the entire Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program by opening it up to additional legal challenges and undermining its core purpose. The DBE program was created by Congress to combat discrimination against minority- and women-owned small businesses. It is and must remain narrowly tailored to serve a compelling governmental interest in order to withstand the Supreme Court's test of strict scrutiny.
While I support the sponsor's stated goal of helping veterans and, more specifically, helping veteran-owned businesses compete for Federal highway and transit construction contracts, I reject the notion that the best way to do so is by undermining the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program.
Mr. Speaker, this is not a zero-sum game. We do not need to pit these two constituencies--both of whom continue to suffer through disproportionately high unemployment rates--against each other. We can and should help both veteran and disadvantaged businesses succeed.
That is why I joined Representatives Cummings, Norton, Brown, and Bustos in sponsoring H.R. 3997, legislation that would create a new veteran-owned business enterprise program at the Department of Transportation that is wholly separate and apart from the existing DBE program. It is the better and more direct way of helping veteran-owned businesses compete for Department of Transportation contracts, and it does so without harming the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on H.R. 1694.
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