Set-Aside for Disabled Veterans Faces Opposition Veterans’ organizations, backed by the Bush administration, are pushing a set-aside procurement program for service-disabled veterans, against the opposition of some minority business advocates. The House Veterans Affairs Committee approved the Veterans Entrepreneurship Act May 15. It would authorize both sole source and competitive set-aside contracts for businesses owned by service-disabled veterans. House Small Business Committee Chairman Donald Manzullo (R-IL), a cosponsor, wanted to allow the bill to go directly to the floor for a vote, bypassing his committee, congressional staff members said. But the committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Nydia Velazquez, objected. Velazquez believes the bill “fails to help veterans and could harm minority-owned businesses,” her press secretary, Wendy Belzer, said in an interview. She said the congresswoman is working with sponsors of the bill “to help veterans, but not at the expense of women and minorities.” Congress in 1999 set a goal of awarding 3% of federal contract dollars to firms owned by service-disabled veterans. The government has not achieved even one-quarter of one percent. That poor performance prompted the Bush administration to endorse the set-aside. “The federal government has done an abysmal job of providing federal contracting opportunities for our veterans,” Angela Styles, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, told the Veterans Affairs Committee April 30. “It is only with extreme caution and reservation that this administration would support the creation of a new procurement preference program,” she testified. “However, in recognition of the extraordinary sacrifice that service-disabled veterans have made for their country, we support the creation of this preference program. In every other conceivable instance, the administration’s preference will be to err towards open competition among qualified firms.” The bill, H. R. 1460, is sponsored by freshman Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) with 15 cosponsors. In another sign of the administration’s concern, Styles wrote to heads of all departments and agencies April 29, “The purpose of this memorandum is to encourage agencies to focus contracting efforts on small businesses owned and operated by veterans, including service-disabled veterans.” She said figures for the first three quarters of fiscal 2002 showed a decline in many agencies’ awards to service-disabled veterans, compared to 2001, the first year the goal was in effect. “Decreasing numbers indicate that we have issues that must be resolved,” she wrote. “Although these goals may not be easy to accomplish, we must do better.” The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to set up a registry of veteran-owned firms at www.vetbiz.gov. Some procurement officials have said they can’t find enough qualified firms to meet the service-disabled veteran goal. “In some cases that’s an excuse,” said Rick Weidman, director of government relations for the Vietnam Veterans of America. “In some cases I think it’s real.” In an interview, he said most agencies have not created a plan to reach the goal: “Most of them don’t even have a plan to make a plan.” Speaking of the opposition to the set-aside, Weidman declared, “Trying to pit veterans against African Americans, pit veterans against Hispanics, pit veterans against Native Americans, pit veterans against women is ludicrous…It’s not a zero-sum game” He said he and other veterans’ advocates will seek to meet with Rep. Velazquez and mount “a major effort” to pass the bill. He also expressed hope that President Bush will issue an executive order putting the power of the Oval Office behind service-disabled veterans’ programs. “Why can’t the president just say, ‘Let’s get it done?’” he asked.