[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18113-18118]
[From the U.S. 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)).'';

[[Page 18114]]

       (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 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

[[Page 18115]]

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 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

[[Page 18116]]

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 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.

[[Page 18117]]

  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.
  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.

[[Page 18118]]

  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 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.
  Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in opposition to 
H.R. 1694, the Fairness to Veterans for Infrastructure Investment Act 
of 2015.
  As the Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for 
Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies and the 
co-chair of the Military Family Caucus, I strongly support efforts to 
ensure veterans have access to opportunities needed to become 
successful in the workforce.
  Simply, H.R. 1694 makes veterans compete against women- and minority-
owned small businesses for an already small goal of ten percent of 
federal highway and transit construction contracts.
  While I agree with the sponsor's stated goal of helping veterans and 
veteran-owned businesses, I do not believe that the best way to do so 
is by legally undermining the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise 
program.
  Instead, we should help both veterans and disadvantaged businesses 
succeed.
  That is why I joined Representatives Cummings, Norton, Brown, and 
Bustos in sponsoring H.R. 3997, which would create a Veteran-owned 
Business Enterprise (VBE) program within the Department of 
Transportation with a stated national goal of ensuring at least 10 
percent of federal highway contracts go to veteran-owned small 
businesses.
  Instead, creating a specific and separate contracting goal for 
veteran-owned businesses is a better way to maximize assistance to 
veterans, as opposed to forcing competition between these two 
constituencies, both of whom continue to suffer through 
disproportionately high unemployment rates.
  I urge my colleagues to help veteran-owned businesses compete for 
Department of Transportation contracts without harming the 
Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program by supporting H.R. 3997 and 
not H.R. 1694.
  Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the Fairness to 
Veterans for Infrastructure Investment Act of 2015 (H.R. 1694).
  H.R. 1694 as drafted would undermine the Department of 
Transportation's Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program to 
promote women- and minority-owned small businesses and provide them 
with the opportunity to compete for federal highway construction 
contracts in an equitable manner. H.R. 1694 would force women- and 
minority-owned small businesses into the same pool of competition with 
veteran-owned small businesses to the detriment of everyone the DBE 
program was intended to help.
  The best way to help our veteran-owned small businesses is to 
establish a separate and specific program to achieve the aim of 
ensuring veteran-owned businesses receive fair consideration for 
federal highway contracts. That is why I am a cosponsor of H.R. 3997, 
which would create a Veteran-owned Business Enterprise program within 
the Department of Transportation. This program would guarantee that at 
least 10 percent of federal highway contracts go to veteran-owned small 
businesses. It would maximize assistance to both veteran-owned and 
women- and minority-owned small businesses, and would not force 
competition between them.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in opposing the Fairness 
to Veterans for Infrastructure Investment Act of 2015 (H.R. 1694).
  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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