Current Call to Action – January 2, 2020
On December 16, the House passed by voice vote H.R. 4920: Department of Veterans Affairs Contracting Preference Consistency Act with no amendments. The NVSBC is in opposition with the language in this bill! The bill not only turns back efforts over the past 10 years to have the Department of Veterans Affairs comply with Public Law 109-461, commonly known as “VETS First”, but also has the potential to put veteran-owned small businesses out of business thru no fault of their own.
This is very disappointing to us! So, the fight moves to the Senate. We are asking you to contact your senators to voice your concerns about H.R. 4920. Attached is a sample letter and contact information for each Senator including his/her Chief of Staff and Legislative Director direct email address.
Senate letter template – January 2020
2019 Senator addresses and POCs in office
Previous Call to Action
August 6, 2019 – On July 11th, 8 Senators and 26 House members co-signed a letter to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie directing the Secretary to place the Ability One Program in front of Vets First (see attached). This is in spite of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kingdomware Technologies vs the United States and the more recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision in United States -Salem Industries. This is the most blatant attack on Vets First NVSBC has seen since VETS First was established in 2006. NVSBC has never seen an instance where members of Congress direct a Secretary to BREAK THE LAW as interpreted by the Courts!
Attached is the letter sent to SECVA by the members. Also attached is our NVSBC letter to each signer of the Congressional letter. If you are in a state or district where your member of Congress signed the letter YOU need to call, write, visit your member and staff and tell them you DO NOT support this action. Ability One is just one organization which has attempted to abolish Vets First. If we do not fight this and have our collective voices heard, other groups will be emboldened! We need EVERY SDVOSB/VOSB to make their voices heard!
April 4, 2017 – Call To Action: Kingdomware Technologies v. U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs