[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 168 (Monday, November 16, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H8164-H8169]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FAIRNESS TO VETERANS FOR INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT ACT OF 2015
Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass
the bill (H.R. 1694) to amend MAP-21 to improve contracting
opportunities for veteran-owned small business concerns, and for other
purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1694
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Fairness to Veterans for
Infrastructure Investment Act of 2015''.
SEC. 2. DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS ENTERPRISES.
Section 1101(b) of MAP-21 (23 U.S.C. 101 note) is amended--
(1) in paragraph (2) by adding at the end the following:
``(C) Veteran-owned small business concern.--The term
`veteran-owned small business concern' has the meaning given
the term `small business concern owned and controlled by
veterans' in section 3(q) of the Small Business Act (15
U.S.C. 632(q)).'';
(2) in paragraph (3) by inserting ``and veteran-owned small
business concerns'' before the period at the end; and
(3) in paragraph (4)(B)--
(A) in clause (ii) by striking ``and'' at the end;
(B) in clause (iii) by striking the period at the end and
inserting ``; and''; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
``(iv) veterans.''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick) and
[[Page H8165]]
the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) each will
control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
General Leave
Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend
their remarks and insert extraneous materials into the Record on H.R.
1694.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Pennsylvania?
There was no objection.
Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, let me begin by expressing my deepest condolences to the
families, friends, and loved ones of those killed in last Friday's
terrorist attacks in Paris. My prayers go out to them, the French
people, and all those lovers of freedom and peace who have been shaken
by this very savage attack.
As Americans, we are too familiar with the specter of terrorism.
Fourteen years ago, on September 11, 2001, terrorists attacked our
homeland. 9/11 was a call to action for tens of thousands of men and
women who enlisted and served in our Nation's Armed Forces in defense
of the American ideals that we all hold so dear.
Now, each year, more than 250,000 of these post-9/11 veterans are
returning home and transitioning into civilian life after service and
continue to serve as leaders in our communities and in our economy. In
fact, one quarter of these veterans say they are interested in starting
or buying their own businesses. This is exactly, Mr. Speaker, the kind
of entrepreneurial spirit that makes America work.
To support these heroic individuals and to put their unique skills
and commitment to best use, the Federal Government has a role to play
in empowering them to succeed in the private sector, especially in
terms of Federal contracting. A number of agencies do.
For example, Mr. Speaker, the Veterans Administration has been a
leader in engaging the veteran-owned small-business community within
their agency, working on contracting and procurement and seeing the
benefits of increased veteran involvement. In fact, this week, in my
own State of Pennsylvania, the VA, in collaboration with other Federal
agencies and partners, will host its fifth national veterans small-
business engagement event. This event is expected to attract nearly
3,000 veteran businessowners and focus on promoting and supporting
veteran-owned small businesses' access to economic opportunities. VA
Secretary Robert McDonald said the event highlights the agency's
``commitment by offering veteran businessowners the tools they need to
thrive in the Federal marketplace. We want to do all that we can to
help our veterans be successful,'' he said.
However, while these veteran businessowners will be making valuable
inroads into working within the Federal contracting and procurement
programs, they won't be talking about rebuilding our Nation's
infrastructure through competing for Federal contracts.
That is because even with the immense amount of work facing the
Department of Transportation, its small-business contracting program
doesn't put veteran small businesses on a level playing field when
competing for contracts. That is a real problem, not only for missed
opportunities for veteran-owned businesses but missed opportunities to
put veteran-owned firms on the front lines of our battle to rebuild our
infrastructure.
While I am a supporter of having a completely level playing field
throughout Federal contracting for every small business, the fact is
that today, some get a preference when doing business with the Federal
Government where veterans do not. While 10 percent of federally funded
infrastructure projects are set aside for small businesses, our
veterans are excluded from competing equally. That is not fair, and
that is why I rise today to offer bipartisan legislation to address it.
My bipartisan Fairness to Veterans for Infrastructure Investment Act
is a simple, yet powerful update to current law. It would allow
veteran-owned small businesses to compete in an existing infrastructure
small-business program known as the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise
Program or DBE. This simple legislation is critical to both the shared
goal of creating and sustaining jobs for our veterans and rebuilding
our Nation's infrastructure.
This bill is an idea that my constituents in Bucks County,
Pennsylvania, know as fairness to veterans and they support it.
{time} 1545
When I visit veteran-owned small businesses across my district which
have received their veteran-owned small-business certification, it is
easy to see its impact on their outlook. Connecting veteran-owned
businesses to the contracting power of the Federal Government opens the
door for increased production, the hiring of additional staff--
oftentimes veterans themselves--and opens doors to national
opportunities.
But it is not just Pennsylvania veterans who would benefit from this
measure. Fairness to Veterans would level the playing field for more
than 380,000 veteran-owned construction firms across the Nation. And it
is not just construction firms that will benefit. There are, in fact, a
variety of industries involved, such as personnel, administrative,
engineering, landscaping, utilities, and information technology. So
this is an issue that affects all veteran-owned small businesses.
With this obviously positive impact, it is easy to see why the
American Legion--one of the foremost organizations advocating for
veterans in the workforce--backs this bill. Its 2.3 million members
support providing parity for veterans in all small-business government
contracting programs.
Here is what they just said in a message to all of our offices:
``The Fairness to Veterans for Infrastructure Investment Act of 2015
is a bipartisan, commonsense, and `no cost to the taxpayer' update of
existing legislation that redresses the exclusion of veteran small
businesses when the framework of the DBE program was originally
drafted.
``Currently, only half of the States meet their DBE goals. Adding
veteran small businesses to this program would increase the pool of
eligible firms at the States' disposal. For States that already meet
their goals, this bill does not affect them or the small-business
contractors that they employ.
``We cannot in good conscience stand idle while our veterans are
precluded from this Federal program.''
Members of this body from both sides of the aisle should see the
positive impact that can be made by putting the most trained workforce
in history on the job of rebuilding our Nation's roads and bridges.
That is what the Fairness to Veterans for Infrastructure Investment Act
is all about.
As a member of the Congressional Veterans Jobs Caucus and an advocate
for tens of thousands of veterans in my district in the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, I encourage my colleagues to support this bipartisan
effort.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, flags throughout the Nation are at half staff, and,
coincidentally, we have just celebrated our own Veterans Day. We
particularly feel that celebration here in the District of Columbia
where we have served our country since it was created and still have no
vote on this floor, even though the residents of the city I represent
pay the highest taxes per capita of any residents anywhere in the
United States, including our veterans, who continue to go to war
without a vote.
But this afternoon, Mr. Speaker, in the wake of Veterans Day, the
House is considering several bills that will benefit the Nation's
veterans. I strongly support much of this legislation. I believe that
many of these bills will pass the House without a single dissenting
vote.
Regrettably, that is not the case, Mr. Speaker, for H.R. 1694, which
I cannot support because, as currently drafted, it may cause
destructive harm to the Department of Transportation's Disadvantaged
Business Enterprise, or DBE, program, which helps combat historic
discrimination against women and minority-owned small businesses.
The DBE program helps level the playing field and provides an
opportunity for these small businesses to
[[Page H8166]]
fairly compete for highway and transit construction contracts.
Regrettably, this bill could destroy the entire program, taking
everything down with it, including the veterans it purports to add.
The U.S. Supreme Court has been very clear in determining that the
DBE program must be subject to the highest standard of constitutional
review by the courts, known as the strict scrutiny test, to be
constitutional. Under the strict scrutiny test established by the U.S.
Supreme Court, the DBE program must be narrowly tailored to serve a
compelling governmental interest.
To meet these objectives, State Departments of Transportation and
public transit agencies must certify individual DBE businesses and
conduct extensive disparity studies to determine the appropriate goal
for awarding contracts to the small businesses owned by women and
minorities in a particular community or State. That is a very rigorous
standard.
The bill before us today, however, adds all veteran-owned businesses
without the constitutionally mandated study. I emphasize that service-
connected disabled veterans are and always have been included. They are
a narrowly tailored group of veterans. However, the change offered
today threatens the constitutionality of the existing DBE program
because it would no longer clearly meet one of the two essential
elements of the Supreme Court test.
The most important is that the program be narrowly tailored to
address the continued effects of discrimination, which the disparity
study must have already shown. Thus, although the bill has a worthy
objective, it has an unintended consequence of threatening the very
program designed to help level the playing field for small businesses
owned by women and minorities and, as would happen, veterans as well.
It just would blow up the whole program.
The gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) and I have met extensively
with the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick) to outline these
concerns. Mr. Cummings and I, in response, developed an alternative
approach to create a veteran-owned business enterprise program within
the Department of Transportation. Under that program, there would be a
national goal to ensure that veteran-owned small businesses receive
highway and transit construction contracts. Moreover, this program
would not undermine the constitutionality of the existing DBE program.
Mr. Cummings and I introduced that bill earlier today, and I had
hoped, in the spirit of compromise that is necessary to save the
program at this point, we could proceed with that compromise proposal
that would achieve all of our objectives: Mr. Fitzpatrick's objectives
and the objectives that have been in the bill since the 1980s.
Regrettably, we have not yet reached any such agreement on this
approach with the gentleman from Pennsylvania prior to today's
consideration of H.R. 1694.
I urge my colleagues to join me in opposing the bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, only in the Nation's Capital, only in Washington, D.C.,
would somebody ever make the argument that adding veterans to any
Federal program would make it weaker, but that is the argument we just
heard. The fact is, of the hundreds of thousands of veteran-owned small
businesses in the United States of America, the owners of many of them
are women veterans, the owners are minority veterans.
I just want to address some of the arguments that my colleague from
the District of Columbia has made, two in particular.
First, the Fairness to Veterans for Infrastructure Investment Act
does not presume that veterans are socially and economically
disadvantaged for purposes of the DBE program. Instead, the veteran-
owned small businesses are given the exact same definition that they
have in other contracting programs through the Small Business Act. The
DBE program was set up to assist certain classes of small businesses,
and this bill does not affect those businesses, number one.
Number two, the Fairness to Veterans for Infrastructure Investment
Act uses existing Small Business Act definitions requiring that
businesses be 51 percent owned or controlled by veterans. The
certification process and the screening was put in place by the
Department of Transportation regulations, a similar process that would
apply to veteran-owned small businesses. Additionally, any business
participating in the DBE program could also be publicly owned.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I do want to note that the gentleman is
correct that women are covered. They are already covered. One-third of
those covered under the DBE category of minority and ethnic groups are
minorities. So we do have large numbers of women and minorities
covered, and the disparity studies have been done as to them.
No disparity studies have been done as to veterans as a whole. If the
gentleman wants to do such a study, we invite him to work with us in
doing a disparity study on veterans rather than blowing up the whole
program.
I now yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings),
a member of the committee and my good friend.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding, and
I also thank her for her leadership as the ranking member of the
Subcommittee on Highways and Transit of the Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure.
This past week, our Nation paused to honor the extraordinary service
of our Nation's veterans. The foundation of America's military is not
ships or missiles, and it isn't tanks or jets. The foundation of our
military is the men and women who voluntarily serve, the ones who give
their blood, sweat, and tears to make sure that we have the freedom
that we experience every day.
Too often those who have served our country, particularly after the
terrible events of 9/11, have faced significant challenges finding
civilian employment. Earlier this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
released a report on veterans' employment in 2014. According to the
BLS, last year there were more than 21 million men and women who had
served in our Armed Forces, or approximately 9 percent of our civilian
population.
The BLS found that in 2014 the jobless rate for all veterans was 5.3
percent, while the unemployment rate for veterans who had served since
9/11 was 7.2 percent. The BLS also found that the unemployment rate for
veterans in my home State of Maryland was 8.5 percent, the highest
among all 50 States.
According to data drawn from the Census Bureau's Survey of Business
Owners in 2007, there were nearly 2\1/2\ million businesses in the
United States of which veterans comprised the majority ownership.
Together, these businesses had receipts of approximately $1.2 trillion.
Nearly half a million of these businesses were also employers, with a
combined annual payroll of approximately $210 billion.
Now, I agree with Representative Fitzpatrick that we must expand
programs that help veterans find employment after their service ends
and that we should expand contracting opportunities in the highway and
transit programs for small businesses owned by veterans. I just don't
think adding veterans to the existing DBE program is the right way to
accomplish these goals.
Adding veteran-owned small businesses to the DBE program would force
the veteran-owned businesses to compete with disadvantaged business
enterprises already participating in the program for contracting
opportunities. The best way to help veterans is to establish a Federal
participation goal that is specifically for veteran-owned small
businesses and business concerns separate and apart from the DBE
program.
{time} 1600
Today I and several of my colleagues introduced legislation to
accomplish just that. Our bill, H.R. 3997, would amend the MAP-21
program to create a 10 percent aspirational goal for veteran-owned
small-business concerns.
Setting a specific and separate goal for veteran-owned businesses
would be
[[Page H8167]]
consistent with existing Federal contracting programs while ensuring
that veterans do not have to compete with any other business under the
aspirational goal.
Setting a separate goal would also ensure that we do not make changes
to the DBE program that could open the program to new legal challenges
that could limit the program's ability to serve either DBEs or
veterans.
I hope that my colleagues across the aisle agree to work with us to
create a program that will provide the maximum benefit to veterans,
which is a Veterans Business Enterprise program with its own
aspirational goals.
To that end, I join Ranking Member Norton in urging Members to oppose
the bill currently before us in favor of creating a program that will
serve veterans and only veterans.
Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments of my colleagues. I would just
indicate that this is not a bill that was just recently filed. This was
filed and has been pending in the House since 2012, when I first filed
the Fairness to Veterans Act, seeking to put our veterans to work as
they are coming off the battlefield and coming back into a difficult
economy, many of them starting businesses because they are
entrepreneurial, because they are hard workers, and because they have
those skills that they achieved while defending our Nation with our
training. They want to put it back in the economy and help get their
country's economy moving again.
Many of them found that, as they were competing for contracts, they
were not on a level playing field. I indicated that for 5 years this
policy has been pending and there have been too few meetings to try to
forward the idea of helping our Nation's veterans compete.
For 5 years our Federal Government has been measuring the DBE
program. On the 10 percent contracting goal that is set forth in the
Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program, for 5 years in a row, 25 of
the 50 States--half of the States--never met their 10 percent goal.
So when we hear that we don't want our Nation's veterans competing
against others within the 10 percent set-aside, first of all, half the
10 percent set-aside is not being met. Number two, I think we do want
competition. I think we do want our Nation's veterans competing.
It will not only be good for our Nation's veterans, it will be good
for all enterprises, all businesses, in this country. Competition is
what built this country. Competition will help put our Nation's
veterans back to work and get our roads and bridges rebuilt, which is a
big and important job.
Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Duncan). The gentleman from Pennsylvania
has 9\1/2\ minutes remaining.
Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, with respect to that big and important
job that our Nation's veterans are prepared for, I would say that we
know that they are up to the challenge, and the statistics prove it.
There are 250,000 veterans transitioning each year from military to
civilian life, and they are looking for their next mission. A quarter
of them say they want to start or buy their own business in the future.
That is something that we should celebrate, encourage, and support.
They join the nearly one in seven veterans who are self-employed or
are small-business owners right now. The impact of veteran-owned
businesses and entrepreneurs with a veteran background on our economy
is impressive.
There are currently 3.7 million veteran-owned businesses in the
United States, accounting for more than $1.6 trillion in receipts and
employing 8.2 million people. Of them, there are more than 380,000
veteran-owned construction firms, 414,519 veteran-owned firms in the
professional, scientific, and technical services, and over 10 percent
of all manufacturing firms are veteran owned. These are the people that
would stand to benefit from this commonsense bill.
Unfortunately, the numbers also show that 75 percent of current
veteran business owners are over the age of 55. That means we need to
support the next generation of veteran small-business owners. The
Fairness to Veterans for Infrastructure Act lays that groundwork.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
The gentleman said there haven't been enough meetings. I met with the
gentleman more than once and then wrote an extensive memo on the
problems with the bill.
You just can't divide veterans the day after Veterans Day. You can't
divide this House on the question of veterans, not when we have offered
an entire program for veterans.
So I don't know what is so sacred about being in this particular
program. In fact, the gentleman mentioned that minorities and women
were not, in fact, meeting all of their goals. Therefore, some of those
goals are left on the table.
That is a very important point. Because being a minority or a woman
is not enough to qualify you for this--and I don't even want to call it
a set-aside for this goal is not a set-aside. So these minorities and
women have to show equivalent skills with others who are competing. It
is not an easy thing to do.
So it is not a question of whether there are some leftover points to
be picked up by veterans. The DBE program has 30 years of history in
the United States Supreme Court.
Mr. Speaker, even with that history, every time this bill is passed
the DBE program is challenged. Each time the Justice Department, under
Democratic and Republican Presidents, have defended it as a narrowly
tailored program.
Recognizing that history and the strict, narrowly tailored standard,
the gentleman was offered a way for veterans to, in fact, be recognized
in transportation and infrastructure programs.
He was offered a way that is probably even better than the program
that unites minorities, women, and, I might add, service-disabled
veterans, who are a narrowly tailored group that is already included.
But instead of accepting this offer, he has decided he wants to blow
up the entire DBE program for veterans and everyone else. We can't
agree to such a destructive approach, particularly when we have offered
the gentleman a way for veterans to be recognized.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, it is disappointing to hear the motives behind my
interest in putting our Nation's veterans back to work being
mischaracterized on the floor, the 5-year effort from 2011 to 2015
where I patiently worked on both sides of the aisle, where I patiently
introduced bills, where I patiently signed up sponsors and cosponsors
on both sides of the aisle.
Only in Washington, D.C., would you say that, after 5 years' worth of
legislative work on an issue to help our veterans, we are rushing
something to the floor. That is what is being suggested here today.
In fact, this bill is the product of years of work, much of that work
hand in hand with The American Legion. And, Mr. Speaker, this is what
The American Legion has to say: On behalf of the 2.3 million members of
The American Legion, I would like to express my support for H.R. 1694,
the Fairness to Veterans for Infrastructure Investment Act.
This bill passed as a resolution at the National Convention of The
American Legion. They supported the Fairness to Veterans for
Infrastructure Investment Act. It was Resolution 339. It passed The
American Legion's 2014 national convention.
It states that The American Legion ``supports legislation to ensure
equal parity for all veterans in all small-business government
contracting programs, thus ensuring no veteran procurement program is
at a disadvantage in competing with any other government procurement
program established by law.''
The American Legion supports the passage of this legislation. It also
goes on to applaud the leadership in addressing this critical issue
facing our Nation's servicemembers and veterans. Mr. Speaker, that is
from Michael Helm, National Commander of The American Legion.
[[Page H8168]]
Let me add that we are not just talking about construction firms, as
I said earlier. We are talking about a wide swath of veteran businesses
that will be impacted.
This is what The American Legion pointed out at their national
meeting. They pointed out that: This bipartisan, commonsense, and no
cost to taxpayer update of existing legislation redresses the exclusion
of veteran-owned small businesses when the framework of the DBE program
was originally drafted, such as personnel, administrative, engineering,
landscaping, utilities and information technology. So, again, this is
an issue that affects all veteran-owned small businesses.
That is from Joe Sharpe, Director of The American Legion's Veterans
Employment and Education Division.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
The gentleman mentioned 5 years that he has put into his bill. His
party has been in power the past 5 years. As far as I know, he never
asked for a hearing so that these issues could be clarified. I am sure
that, if he had, we might have been able to iron this out.
Even without a hearing, based on what the Supreme Court has said, we
have no choice but to oppose the bill as he has offered it, in not
differentiating among the veterans he is speaking about, but putting in
a global group, which has never been done or approved.
We have barely been able to get the Supreme Court to agree to let
such programs prevail, but we have always succeeded in getting the
Court to understand that past discrimination has been shown through
disparity studies. Without any disparity studies, the gentleman from
Pennsylvania means to march straight up to the Supreme Court and say:
We are veterans. Approve us anyway.
Nobody opposes veterans, particularly at this time, following what we
have seen in Paris. The way to make sure that veterans are not left out
is to sit down with us and figure it out, not to barnstorm the floor in
the hope that, since you are in the majority, it will pass.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia indicated
that there has not been a hearing in the House of Representatives in
the relevant subcommittees or committees on the Fairness to Veterans
for Infrastructure Investment Act.
The fact is, for 5 years, this bill has been pending. Anybody on the
committee, including Ms. Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia,
could have asked for and had a hearing.
It is a shame that, after 5 years, there was no hearing. But we have
a hearing now on the floor here on this bill.
In addition to the Transportation Committee, the bill was also
referred to the Small Business Committee. The American Legion testified
on the bill within one of their subcommittees.
So there was a hearing. There was testimony. There was an opportunity
for all Members to question and to follow up on those questions and to
submit material after the hearing was over.
So, after 5 years of debate, after 5 years of negotiation, after 5
years of working with committees and subcommittees, this bill was
prepared to be voted on here today.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the letter from The American
Legion dated April 22, 2015, signed by National Commander Michael D.
Helm, in support of the Fairness to Veterans for Infrastructure
Investment Act.
The American Legion,
Washington, DC, April 22, 2015.
Hon. Michael Fitzpatrick,
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC.
Dear Representative Fitzpatrick: On behalf of the 2.3
million members of The American Legion I would like to
express support for H.R. 1694, the Fairness to Veterans for
Infrastructure Investment Act.
Resolution 339, passed at The American Legion's 2014
National Convention states that The American Legion ``. . .
supports legislation to ensure equal parity for all veterans
in all small business government contracting programs, thus
ensuring no veteran procurement program is at a disadvantage
in competing with any other government procurement program
established by law.''
This bill would work to achieve this end, by making
veteran-owned small businesses (VOSBs) eligible for
Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) programs of the
Department of Transportation (DoT). Veterans are not presumed
to be socially or economically disadvantaged for purposes of
DBE programs; instead the proposed legislation would make
VOSBs independently eligible by establishing VOSBs as a
separate entity who count for the purposes of the 10 percent
goal as set by DoT.
Again, The American Legion supports passage of this
legislation, and applauds your leadership in addressing this
critical issue facing our nation's service members and
veterans.
Respectfully,
Michael D. Helm,
National Commander.
Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
This is the first time I have ever heard a Member from the majority
say that a Member from the minority should have asked for a hearing on
his bill. If you are in the majority and you want a hearing on your
bill, that is your obligation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown), my
good friend, for the purpose of a colloquy.
{time} 1615
Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me just say that
we just finished celebrating Veterans Day, and as the ranking member, I
support veterans 100 percent.
Also, as a minority, I have a question for the gentlewoman because we
just celebrated the 1965 Voting Rights Act and, of course, minorities
have had a tough time participating in many programs.
Can you tell me, if this amendment passed, how will this affect the
MBA, the minority business program in transportation?
We have both been on this committee. I have been on it for over 23
years, and we know it has to be narrowly tailored, or else we will have
no programs.
Ms. NORTON. I thank the gentlewoman for her question.
Unfortunately, there is some very rough history to prove what needs
to be done. It is not as if we are speculating on what the
constitutional standard is. The constitutional standard has been
developed. The States have to do their disparity studies all over again
to show that groups should still be included. Some groups may fall out.
This is delicate work, and in our constitutional government, we don't
say every worthy group should have a preference. We need to make a
showing, and if that showing isn't made, then the matter will not
stand.
If you want to give a very, very painful example of that, let's take
the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court of the United States
overturned, about 5 years ago, the Voting Rights Act.
Guess why, Mr. Speaker? They said there had been some changes, and
that people of color could now vote, as they couldn't always vote when
the Voting Rights Act was passed. And so they threw it back to this
Congress, and said: All right, you can have a Voting Rights Act but you
must update the Act to show that there is still a disparity in voting.
There are pending now three bills in order to do that.
But if the Supreme Court did that on the Voting Rights Act, where the
discrimination was perhaps the most apparent, from poll taxes to
lynching, you can imagine where we would be on DBE, and we have got 30
years of court history to show it.
We all want to do the best that we possibly can for our veterans. The
way to do that is to sit down and design a bill that would, in fact,
pass constitutional muster. We know how to do it.
This is not a matter of the ego of whoever introduces the bill. It is
a matter of how you make sure that veterans, in fact, are designated,
in a constitutional way, for participation in the soon-to-be-signed-by-
the-President surface transportation bill.
Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from the District of
Columbia has 45 seconds remaining.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, we have done the best we could for our
veterans in speaking for this bill today. We remain open to assuring
that the veterans participate in the funds that are
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about to come from the transportation and infrastructure bill.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, we know that we must rebuild our
crumbling infrastructure in this country. That is not a question.
In fact, in my home State of Pennsylvania, 15 percent of roads are in
poor condition, and there are over 5,200 structurally deficient
bridges. There is plenty of work to do, work which will be supported by
the bipartisan passage of the other week's 6-year surface
transportation bill.
What we can decide today, with my Fairness to Veterans Act, is if it
will be in our Nation's interest that our veterans will help to lead
that work.
Let's salute our veteran small-business owners by empowering them to
rebuild America and passing the Fairness to Veterans for Infrastructure
Investment Act, a bipartisan, commonsense, no-cost-to-the-taxpayer
update of existing legislation. I urge my colleagues to support this
simple bipartisan proposal and pass this measure.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick) that the House suspend
the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1694.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
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