Press Releases

Today, House Small Business Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) and Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce Chairman Richard Hanna (R-NY) testified before a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to request that the Committee’s bipartisan small business contracting reform legislation be included in this year’s NDAA. Small Business Committee Member and Armed Services Committee Member Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO) also expressed support for the legislation during the hearing. The bills were approved by the Committee on March 5^th. 

During the hearing, Graves testified, “Recognizing that this is a crucial area for small businesses, over the past three years, the Armed Services Committee and the Small Business Committee have worked together to reduce barriers to entry, create guidance that allows small businesses to compete and facilitates the Department of Defense (DoD) meeting the needs of the warfighter, and ensure that we have a strong small business industrial base.

“…I am here today to support the inclusion of six small business contracting bills in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act.”

Hanna testified, “…there are a few areas where the federal government’s policy on construction contracting hurts small businesses, taxpayers, and the agencies themselves. This is particularly important given the scope of federal construction contracting. Construction and architect & engineering (or, A&E) contracting represent about 1 in every 6 prime contract dollars awarded to small businesses. That was over $17 billion in prime contracts in fiscal year 2012. Therefore, as the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Contracting and the Workforce of the Small Business Committee, I’ve introduced two bills this Congress, and cosponsored a third bill, intended to bring some commonsense reform to this arena.”
 

Members Requested The Following Legislation Be Included:

1. Greater Opportunities for Small Business Act of 2014 (H.R. 4093) Sponsor: Graves

2. Design Build Efficiency and Jobs Act of 2013 (H.R. 2750) Sponsor: Graves

3. Commonsense Construction Contracting Act of 2013 (H.R. 2751) Sponsor: Hanna

4. Security in Bonding Act (H.R. 776) Sponsor: Hanna

5. Contracting Data and Bundling Accountability Act (H.R. 4094) Sponsor: Graves

6. Improving Opportunities for Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses Act of 2013 (H.R. 2882) Sponsor: Coffman

During the112^th Congress and 113^th Congress, the Committee has been successful in including its small business legislation in the final NDAAs that were signed into law. The NDAA of 2013 and 2014 incorporated several Committee-sponsored contracting provisions, including making small business procurement goals part of senior agency employee reviews and bonus discussions, preventing contracting fraud by penalizing companies that front for large businesses, and changing limitations on subcontracting to make it easier for small companies to team on larger contracts.

CLICK HERE to watch the video of Graves, Coffman and Hanna during the hearing.

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