Stimulus work out of reach, vet-owned firms say

WASHINGTON

The Defense Department's management of its base closing process is effectively forcing veteran-owned small businesses across Hampton Roads out of competition for millions of dollars in contracts, a Norfolk businessman told lawmakers Thursday.

Jim Hart, a service-disabled vet who heads Arriba Corp., a construction company, said he has bid on and won contracts at the Pentagon itself but "there's no work down in the Tidewater area" for his company.

Facing a 2011 deadline to complete base closures ordered in 2005, military managers have tapped operating budgets to pay expenses associated with closing some facilities and readying others for workers being transferred, Hart said.

Some of that work could be done by his company, he added, but to save time and paperwork, short-staffed contracting officers are bundling small jobs into contracts too large for him to handle.

Hart was among several local businesspeople testifying at a subcommittee hearing on opportunities and obstacles for veteran-owned businesses seeking help from the economic stimulus bill Congress passed last month.

Mark Klett, a Navy vet who runs an engineering consulting business in Virginia Beach, said his company and other small businesses are well-positioned to put plenty of people to work quickly - a major goal of the stimulus bill - if they can get contracts.

On one recent government job, Klett said, he made 15 new hires within a week of receiving a contract award.

"There is reason to be concerned," said Rep. Glenn Nye, the first-term Norfolk Democrat who convened the session.

While some agencies are making strides, the federal government consistently has failed to meet its modest goal of providing 3 percent of contracts to service-disabled veterans, he said.

The Small Business Administration sets annual contracting goals for the federal bureaucracy for awards to small companies that are considered disadvantaged, work in historically under-used areas, or are owned by women or service-disabled veterans.

Most agencies are failing to meet at least some of those targets - the Department of Veterans Affairs was the only one at Thursday's hearing to exceed all its objectives. SBA figures indicate that in 2007, small businesses received less than half of the $378 billion in awards for which they were eligible.

Service-disabled veteran-owned businesses received $3.8 billion - about 1 percent of the contract dollars - the SBA said.

Nye's small-business subcommittee on contracting and technology is a relative backwater in the House, but chairmanship of any subcommittee is a plum for a freshman lawmaker. Nye used his first hearing to spotlight one of his most important constituencies - his 2nd District is among the most veteran-laden in the nation.

Nye told officials of four agencies represented at the hearing that Congress "will not accept the tired excuse that the need to move hastily and the sheer volume of contracts" is keeping them from funneling work to veteran-owned companies.

Dale Eisman, (703) 913-9872, dale.eisman@pilotonline.com