Veteran-owned businesses face problems with VA

Veteran-owned businesses face problems with VA
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Nov 30, 2011 15:38:26 EST
Lawmakers grilled Veterans Affairs Department officials Wednesday about why veteran-owned businesses ranked eighth in priority for government contracts despite laws and regulations that are supposed to put veterans first.

The answers provided at House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing were murky.

Thomas Leney, executive director of VA’s office of small and disadvantaged business utilization, said veteran-owned businesses “have priority in open market purchases.”

When asked what that meant, he said he was not an expert on government contracting and couldn’t really explain it. “I am not the person to answer that question directly,” he said as he appeared before a joint hearing of the veterans’ affairs committee’s economic opportunity panel and oversight and investigations panel.
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