Congress Votes Set-Aside for Service-Disabled Vets Congress has given final passage to a set-aside program for businesses owned by service-disabled veterans. President Bush is expected to sign it into law. The final bill drops a provision passed earlier by the House that would have given 8(a) firms priority over disabled veterans in set-aside contracts. The bill authorizes sole-source contracts for service-disabled-veteran-owned-businesses up to $3 million, or $5 million for manufacturers. It permits contracting officers to set aside contracts if they anticipate at least two bids from qualified service-disabled-veteran-owned firms. Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ), chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, told the House Nov. 20, “In the past they’ve gotten so little of the federal procurement dollars — 0.13 of one percent — which is unconscionable.” That was the figure in fiscal 2002, the latest available. Congress in 1999 set a goal of awarding 3% of prime contract dollars to service-disabled veterans. The Bush administration announced its support of the bill last spring. Angela Styles, then administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, told the House Veterans Affairs Committee April 30, “The federal government has done an abysmal job of providing federal contracting opportunities for our veterans.” The Task Force for Veterans Entrepreneurship, made up of dozens of veterans organizations and veteran-owned small businesses, had fought to remove the 8(a) preference from the original House-passed bill. Rick Weidman, legislative director of Vietnam Veterans of America, said, “We didn’t want to be favored over 8(a) and we didn’t want 8(a) favored over us…We are not in competition against any other group.” The final bill sets no priorities as to which socioeconomic group gets first crack at set-aside contracts. But the House Small Business Committee, in its SBA Reauthorization bill, gave top priority to 8(a) firms. That bill, H.R. 2802, is not likely to come up for a vote in the full House until next year, since there are only a few days left in this year’s congressional session. The Senate passed the Veterans Benefits Act, H.R. 2297, unanimously on Nov. 19; the House approved it by a voice vote the next day.