U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) on Nov. 3 introduced legislation to ensure the federal government awards contracts to small businesses owned by service-disabled United States military veterans, according to the lawmaker’s office.
“The federal government cannot continue to view its contracting obligation to service-disabled veteran small business owners as a mere suggestion,” Sen. Ernst said. “My effort forces the Small Business Administration to equip federal agencies with the resources and training they need to reach their contracting requirement and uphold their commitment to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.”
Sen. Ernst’s office said that the Small Business Administration (SBA) has reported that the federal government has failed to meet the overall prime contracting goal for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses for two out of the last 10 years and has not met the subcontracting goal for all of the last 10 years.
The Service-Disabled Veteran Opportunities in Small Business Act would require the SBA to issue publicly available guidance for each agency to meet the current goals for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, and provide training for each agency that fails to meet these obligations, according to a bill summary provided by Sen. Ernst’s staff.
If enacted, the bill also would require an annual report detailing the agencies that fail to meet these goals and the actions put in place to rectify the issue, the summary says.