[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 45 (Thursday, April 21, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
         ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE ACTIONS ON PROCUREMENT REFORM

  (Mr. CONYERS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, over a year ago, the President and Vice 
President asked Congress to undertake comprehensive reform of how the 
Government buys goods and services. They know what we know: that in 
government procurement there is too much paperwork, too little 
openness, and inadequate fairness for small businesses. Soon after, the 
President announced his support for provisions that the Government 
Operations Committee has been attempting to enact into law for years to 
improve and simplify the process.
  Last July 28, our committee reported out H.R. 2238 to accomplish this 
task. Because, unlike previous bills, that legislation on a limited 
basis mentioned statutes affecting DOD on two pages out of over 60, the 
Committee on Armed Services had a referral limited for that purpose. 
The bill has been sitting there since.
  It is with great disappointment that I learned today, after this long 
wait, and in the eleventh hour, that the Armed Services Committee will 
not report out this legislation unless our committee will make a 
concession to equal number of conferees for the purposes of a 
conference. This is the case even though, I am sure, that the 
parliamentarian would not acknowledge their rights to such a demand 
under the House rules or relevant precedents such as the Competition in 
Contracting Act of 1984.
  The American people did not send us here to engage in these petty 
disputes or to hold hostage major reform legislation to jurisdictional 
raids. I learn this today with great disappointment, but with the hopes 
that cooler and rational heads will prevail so that we can 
expeditiously get on with the business that the American people sent us 
here to do and in accordance with the rules of this body.

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