[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 12511]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   COMMERCE FOR DEFENDERS ACT OF 2010

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. NICK J. RAHALL II

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 29, 2010

  Mr. RAHALL. Madam Speaker, today I rise on behalf of all of America's 
Veterans and proudly introduce the Commerce for Defenders Act of 2010--
a bill to create a Veteran Owned Small Business Preference in the 
Surface Transportation authorization--SAFETEA-LU, and set the precedent 
for continuing this important preference in the upcoming authorization.
  For more than two hundred years, brave Americans have answered the 
call to serve our Nation at home and abroad, and my fellow West 
Virginians have long been among the first to report for duty.
  Our Nation's veterans are true American patriots. Theirs is a proud 
story of service, sacrifice, and uncommon acts of heroism. They make 
each of us so very proud.
  Aristotle said, ``Men acquire a particular quality by constantly 
acting a particular way . . . you become just, by performing just 
actions . . . brave by performing brave actions.''
  We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to, and have great respect and 
deep admiration for, the 23 million men and women across America, who 
wore a military uniform in service to these great United States.
  Madam Speaker, for 34 years I have been privileged to represent the 
people of southern West Virginia, and it is with humble sincerity I 
say, our Nation's veterans are never far from my mind.
  There are 170,783 Veterans in my State of West Virginia--51,500 in my 
Congressional District alone--and that number is growing every day.
  I am disheartened that our Veterans--the Defenders of our Freedom and 
American Way of Life--have given so much to their fellow Americans; 
yet, they face many hardships in their return to civilian life.
  In a Nation such as ours, it is a stunning reality that today our 
brothers and sisters who have served around the globe to preserve 
democracy and promote freedom, are struggling with life in their home 
towns. Our Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are currently 
faced with a 21 percent unemployment rate.
  Creating a Veterans' preference in the Transportation sector is very 
simple. It seeks to give America's veterans an opportunity advantage in 
the contracting process for their service to our country--a means to 
attach importance and to acknowledge our fellow Americans who have put 
their life on the line to preserve our way of life.
  The propensity of this bill is at the same enormous and reasonable.
  The number of Veteran owned businesses available to contract in the 
transportation construction industry would be quite small in comparison 
to the potential $500 billion authorization bill proposed by Chairman 
Oberstar. However, for Veterans who have returned home from deployment; 
who are trying to put their life and families back on track; who have 
been plunged into the extremely competitive marketplace--creating this 
preference is the very least we can do and will make a difference for 
many, many veterans.
  There is an exponential effect created by this preference, as 
Veterans are known to hire other Veterans--spreading the potential 
benefit beyond prime contractors on to subcontractors and employees, as 
well as those who provide products and services to them--such as truck 
drivers, mechanics, surveyors and repair technicians, landscapers, 
bricklayers, carpenters, and concrete and masonry suppliers--and the 
list goes on.
  The bill will not burden states with verification processes, as the 
Veterans Administration already has Veteran Owned Small Business 
registration process in place. The law that created this existing 
database requires the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to make the 
database available to all federal departments and agencies and to 
notify each department and agency of the availability of the database. 
To ensure a Veteran Owned Small Business is eligible a state would 
simply check that the business is registered with the Veterans 
Administration--saving time and money for all involved.
  This bill does not interfere with Disadvantaged Business Enterprise 
(DBE) contracting goals currently ensconced in federal transportation 
law--in fact, it is my hope that the many women and minority veteran's 
small business owners will benefit from this opportunity. This Veterans 
preference would not create any new eligibility requirements for the 
DBE program and it would not infringe upon the importance that Congress 
has repeatedly placed on the DBE program.
  Madam Speaker, from the battlefield to the marketplace, our 
veterans--America's patriots--exemplify sacrifice and commitment to 
duty.
  I urge my colleagues to vote for The Commerce for Defenders Act of 
2010--so that we may respectfully and gratefully fulfill our duty to 
support our Veterans--and, in one small part, to acknowledge the great 
sacrifice so many have so willingly made for all of us.

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