I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3082 
To amend title 38, United States Code, to require that 9 percent of procure-
ment contracts entered into by the Department of Veterans Affairs 
be awarded to small business concerns owned by veterans, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 28, 2005 
Mr. BOOZMAN (for himself, Ms. HERSETH, Mr. BILIRAKIS, Mr. BURTON of 
Indiana, and Mr. EVERETT) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 
A BILL 
To amend title 38, United States Code, to require that 
9 percent of procurement contracts entered into by the 
Department of Veterans Affairs be awarded to small 
business concerns owned by veterans, and for other pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Veteran-Owned Small 
Business Promotion Act of 2005’’.
SEC. 2. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS REQUIRE-
MENT FOR PARTICIPATION BY SMALL BUSI-
NESSES OWNED AND CONTROLLED BY VET-
ERANS IN 9 PERCENT OF PROCUREMENT 
CONTRACTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 81 of 
title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 
end the following new section: 
‘‘§ 8127. Contract requirement for small business con-
cerns owned and controlled by veterans 
‘‘(a) REQUIREMENT.—(1) The Department shall 
award not less than 9 percent of the total value of all 
prime contract and subcontract awards by the Department 
for each fiscal year to small business concerns owned and 
controlled by veterans. 
‘‘(2) At least one-third of the total value of all awards 
made under paragraph (1) shall be awarded to small busi-
ness concerns owned and controlled by veterans with serv-
ice-connected disabilities. 
‘‘(b) SOLE SOURCE CONTRACTS.—For purposes of 
meeting the requirement of subsection (a), and in accord-
ance with this section, a contracting officer of the Depart-
ment shall award a sole source contract to any small busi-
ness concern owned and controlled by veterans if— 
‘‘(1) such concern is determined to be a respon-
sible contractor with respect to performance of such
contract opportunity and the contracting officer does 
not have a reasonable expectation that 2 or more 
small business concerns owned and controlled by vet-
erans will submit offers for the contracting oppor-
tunity; 
‘‘(2) the anticipated award price of the contract 
(including options) will not exceed $5,000,000; and 
‘‘(3) in the estimation of the contracting officer, 
the contract award can be made at a fair and rea-
sonable price that offers best value to the United 
States. 
‘‘(c) USE OF RESTRICTED COMPETITION.—For pur-
poses of meeting the requirements of subsection (a), and 
in accordance with this section, a contracting officer of 
the Department shall award contracts on the basis of com-
petition restricted to small business concerns owned and 
controlled by veterans if the contracting officer has a rea-
sonable expectation that 2 or more small business con-
cerns owned and controlled by veterans will submit offers 
and that the award can be made at a fair and reasonable 
price that offers best value to the United States. 
‘‘(d) ELIGIBILITY
OF
SMALL
BUSINESS
CON-
CERNS.—To be eligible to be awarded a contract under 
this section, a small business concern shall be listed in
the database of veteran-owned businesses maintained by 
the Secretary under subsection (e). 
‘‘(e) 
DATABASE
OF
VETERAN-OWNED
BUSI-
NESSES.—(1) Subject to the succeeding provisions of this 
subsection, the Secretary shall maintain a database of 
small business concerns owned and controlled by veterans. 
‘‘(2) Information maintained in the database shall be 
submitted on a voluntary basis by such veterans. 
‘‘(3) In maintaining the database, the Secretary shall 
carry out only two verification functions, as follows: 
‘‘(A) Verification that each person listed in the 
database is a veteran. 
‘‘(B) In the case of a veteran who indicates a 
service-connected disability, verification of the serv-
ice-disabled status of such veteran. 
‘‘(4) The Secretary shall make the database available 
to all Federal departments and agencies. 
‘‘(5) If the Secretary determines that the public dis-
semination of certain types of information maintained in 
the database is inappropriate, the Secretary shall take 
such steps as are necessary to maintain such types of in-
formation in a secure and confidential manner. 
‘‘(f) ENFORCEMENT PENALTIES FOR MISREPRESEN-
TATION.—Any small business concern that is determined 
by the Secretary to have misrepresented the status of that
concern as a small business concern owned and controlled 
by veterans for purposes of this subsection, shall be sub-
ject to— 
‘‘(1) section 1001 of title 18; and 
‘‘(2) sections 3729 through 3733 of title 31. 
‘‘(g) TREATMENT OF BUSINESSES AFTER DEATH OF 
VETERAN-OWNER.—(1) If the death of a veteran causes 
a small business concern to be less than 51 percent owned 
by one or more veterans, the surviving spouse of such vet-
eran who inherits ownership rights in such small business 
concern shall be treated as if the surviving spouse were 
that veteran for the purpose of maintaining the status of 
the small business concern as a small business concern 
owned and controlled by veterans for the period described 
in paragraph (2). 
‘‘(2) The period referred to in paragraph (1) is the 
period beginning on the date on which the veteran dies 
and ending on the earliest of the following dates: 
‘‘(A) The date on which the surviving spouse 
remarries. 
‘‘(B) The date on which the surviving spouse 
gives up an ownership interest in the small business 
concern. 
‘‘(C) The date that is ten years after the date 
of the veteran’s death.
‘‘(h) PRIORITY FOR CONTRACTING PREFERENCES.— 
‘‘(1) PRIORITY AMONG VETERAN-OWNED SMALL 
BUSINESSES.—Preferences for awarding prime con-
tract and subcontract awards under this section 
shall be applied in the following order of priority: 
‘‘(A) Small business concerns owned and 
controlled by veterans with service-connected 
disabilities. 
‘‘(B) Small business concerns owned and 
controlled by veterans. 
‘‘(2) RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER CONTRACTING 
PREFERENCES.—A procurement may not be made 
from any source on the basis of a preference pro-
vided under any other provision of law if the pro-
curement would otherwise be made from a different 
source under this section. 
‘‘(i) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) The term ‘small business concern’ has the 
same meaning as under section 3 of the Small Busi-
ness Act (15 U.S.C. 632). 
‘‘(2) The term ‘small business concern owned 
and controlled by veterans’ means a small business 
concern— 
‘‘(A) not less than 51 percent of which is 
owned by one or more veterans or, in the case
of any publicly owned business, not less than 51 
percent of the stock of which is owned by one 
or more veterans; 
‘‘(B) the management and daily business 
operations of which are controlled by one or 
more veterans or, in the case of a veteran with 
service-connected total disability that is perma-
nent in nature, the spouse of such veteran; and 
‘‘(C) that is listed in the database of vet-
eran-owned businesses maintained by the Sec-
retary under subsection (e).’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 
at the beginning of such chapter is amended by inserting 
after the item relating to section 8126 the following new 
item: 
‘‘8127. Contract requirement for small business concerns owned and controlled 
by veterans.’’. 
SEC. 
3. 
DEPARTMENT 
OF 
VETERANS 
AFFAIRS 
CON-
TRACTING PRIORITY FOR VETERAN-OWNED 
SMALL BUSINESSES. 
(a) PRIORITY FOR VETERAN-OWNED SMALL BUSI-
NESSES.—Subchapter II of chapter 81 of title 38, United 
States Code, as amended by section 1, is further amended 
by adding at the end the following new section:
‘‘§ 8128. Contracting priority for small business con-
cerns owned and controlled by veterans. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—In procuring goods and services 
pursuant to a contracting preference under this title or 
any other provision of law, the Secretary shall give priority 
to a small business concern owned and controlled by vet-
erans, if such business concern also meets the require-
ments of that contracting preference. 
‘‘(b) DEFINITION.—The term ‘small business concern 
owned and controlled by veterans’ has the meaning given 
that term under section 8127 of this title.’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 
at the beginning of such chapter, as amended by section 
1, is further amended by inserting after the item relating 
to section 8127 the following new item: 
‘‘8128. Contracting priority for small business concerns owned and controlled 
by veterans.’’. 
SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The amendments made by this 
Act shall apply to contracts awarded during fiscal years 
beginning after September 30, 2006. 
(b) TRANSITION RULE.—In carrying out section 
8127 of title 38, United States Code, as added by section 
1(a), with respect to contracts awarded during fiscal year 
2007, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall treat the ref-
erence to ‘‘9 percent’’ in subsection (a)(1) of such section 
as if it were a reference to ‘‘6 percent’’. 
Æ