Verification Alignment and Service-Disabled Business Adjustment Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. KELLY of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairwoman Velazquez and Ranking Member Chabot for working to bring the VA-SBA Act to the House floor. I also thank my friend and cosponsor from Colorado (Mr. Crow) for working on this very important legislation. I thank all of them for being champions of both our veterans and our small businesses all across America.

As we have heard in the hearings held in the Committee on Small Business, the VA proactively verifies service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses while the SBA allows business owners to self-certify. This process creates inconsistent outcomes, such as a business qualifying as a service-disabled veteran business for VA contracts but not other Federal agency contracts.

While the SBA-certified businesses' awards are subject to scrutiny, the lack of a front-end verification leaves the door open for fraud and abuse.

We have already made significant strides in the right direction. The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2017 instructed the SBA and VA to unify the definitions for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses and began moving regulatory responsibility from the VA to the SBA. Additionally, this administration has made substantial improvements in streamlining certifications for small business Federal procurement programs.

The VA-SBA Act marks the next significant step towards unification of the two programs under one umbrella at the SBA and reduces red tape and confusion for veteran small business owners.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for supporting this bill.

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