From the Office of Senator Kerry

Friday, December 15, 2000

WASHINGTON, DC- Senator John Kerry (D-MA), the Ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Small Business, announced that the "Small Business Reauthorization Act of 2000, H.R. 5667," has passed the Congress as part of the FY 2001 Omnibus Appropriations Act and is headed to the President for signature. The legislation reauthorizes and makes improvements to virtually all of the Small Business Administration's (SBA) programs, including a contracting provision to help veterans who own small businesses, or who are trying to start their own business, and a provision to strengthen the National Veterans Business Development Corporation.

"Giving service-disabled veterans the same advantages in Federal contracting that women-owned businesses get, and small disadvantaged businesses get, is logical and appropriate. We want Federal contracts to be more readily available to service-disabled veterans. Federal contracts total about $200 billion a year. I want the Agencies to take seriously this provision and the 3 percent goal that we enacted last year," Kerry said

The Small Business Reauthorization Act of 2000 increases Federal contracting opportunities for service-disabled veterans. Specifically, the legislation clarifies that service-disabled veterans are on the same preference level as small disadvantaged businesses and women-owned small businesses. With this change, when Federal agencies are considering proposals, they have to give a little more weight to proposals submitted by businesses that are owned and operated by service-disabled veterans.

The Small Business Reauthorization Act of 2000 corrects the funding and matching requirements for the National Veterans Business Development Corporation. It makes funding available for four years, for fiscal years FY2001 through FY2004. It also gives the Corporation one year of funding without a matching requirement, giving it a chance to get up and running. The Corporation was created last year to focus on business development for veterans and is intended to be self-funding after four years.

"It was critical to correct the Corporation's funding. It would have had only three years to become self-funding, which is a job in and of itself, rather than focusing on building a good program and network of assistance to effectively teach veterans how to start and expand their small businesses. I want this to work because economic independence gives people a deep sense of dignity. Many veterans feel they've been stripped of their dignity because of too little government support and no direction after years of service," stated Kerry.

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