Working our Federal Government Relations Agenda: NASBP Involvement on Capitol Hill

Important issues supported by NASBP are moving on Capitol Hill. In the last few months, Congress passed and the President signed legislation repealing the 3% withholding requirement. Congress also conducted a hearing on small business issues, where NASBP had the opportunity to provide written and oral testimony. Two of our 2012 Government Relations Agenda priorities were addressed in my 5-minute oral testimony—needed improvements to enhance the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Bond Guarantee Program and support of H.R. 3534, the “Security in Bonding Act of 2011,” which places tighter controls on the pledged assets of individual sureties. NASBP written testimony covered additional 2012 Government Relations Agenda priorities and focused on elevating bonding education and awareness and curbing improper contract bundling. I cannot remember a similar time in recent history where NASBP has been able to get so many of our issues in front of Congress.

But getting issues in front of Congress and keeping them in front of Congress are two different things. Congress can have a short memory. NASBP must keep a constant presence on Capitol Hill to keep our points in the minds of federal representatives. Knowing that, Larry LeClair, our Director of Government Relations, stays well-traveled in the halls and in the offices of congressional office buildings. NASBP, together with SFAA, has increased efforts to educate staff and members of Congress, especially concerning H.R. 3534. We are extremely active with members of the House Small Business Committee and the House Judiciary Committee (the committee to which H.R. 3534 was referred). Most recently, NASBP had the opportunity to discuss H.R. 3534 in-person with Representatives Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), Steve King (R-IA), and Bobby Schilling (R-IL) at political fundraising events, the end results of access given by contributions from our Political Action Committee, SuretyPAC.

These members of Congress are or have been small business owners. They know first-hand the burdens and challenges placed on small businesses. They are receptive to our message about how bond producers aid and better the businesses of their clients. Representative Mulvaney has owned and operated a number of businesses as well as practiced law. Representative King previously owned an earth moving /excavation company now operated by his son. Through his construction experience, Representative King obtained an understanding of the importance of the surety bond product. Representative Schilling owns and operated a family pizzeria business in Moline, IL. Each is receptive to good ideas to benefit the business environments for small businesses. Just recently, Representative Schilling extended invitations to NASBP and to representatives of the small business community to an open house that will be held next week to discuss small business issues.

Credit needs to be given to Representative Sam Graves (R-MO), who is Chairman of the House Small Business Committee and who has energized efforts to aid U.S. small businesses through legislative solutions. Earlier this month, Chairman Sam Graves and Representative Allen West (R-FL) introduced the “Contractor Opportunity Protection Act (COP) of 2012,” H.R. 4081, which will help protect small business contractors by addressing improper contract bundling. This bill provides a stronger process to appeal unjustified bundling through clarification of the statutory limits and creates a third party arbiter to fight unjustified contract bundling by allowing the SBA to appeal an agency’s questionable bundling decision to the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals or the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, and if the SBA declines to do so, the legislation allows third party groups to bring a General Accounting Office (GAO) protest. The bill also amends the definition of contract bundling to include “any construction services,” which is currently omitted from the definition. NASBP has long advocated that amending the current definition of contract bundling to include procurements for new construction services would increase opportunities for small construction firms attempting to participate as prime contractors on federal construction projects. Chairman Graves has been a champion of legislative efforts to address improper contract bundling, a complex issue deserving thoughtful debate and action.

Further, earlier last month, members of the House Small Business Committee introduced three pieces of bipartisan legislation as part of the Committee’s contracting reform initiative. According to the Committee’s press release, these bills “are the continuation of the Committee’s efforts to address those impediments by creating protections to fight contracting fraud and empowering advocates to fight for small business during the federal acquisition process.” The bills include:

• H.R. 3890, (Beutler-R-WA/Shrader-D-OR). the “Small Business Opportunity Act of 2012” which limits insourcing by permitting insourcing decision review by procurement center representative (PCR),
• H.R. 3987 (Walsh-R-Il/Connolly D-VA), the “Small Business Protection Act of 2012,” which creates new group size standards that will define what businesses qualify as small, and
• H.R. 3985 (Schilling-R-IL/Chu-D-CA), the “Building Better Business Partnerships Act of 2012,” which allows the Small Business Administration (SBA) the authority to oversee civilian agency mentor-protégé programs in order to promote portability of agreements between the agencies, guarantee that the programs benefit small businesses, and ensure that the mentor-protégé agreement doesn’t inadvertently harm the protégé small business statute.

It is gratifying to see so much energy coming from the US House Small Business Committee. Such energy helps us advance our federal legislative agenda, much of which directly or indirectly involves small business issues. If ever there was a reason for you to attend the NASBP Legislative Fly-in, this is the year! Please make every effort to do so. You’ll be doing yourself a favor, and I guarantee you will find it worthwhile.