Pennsylvania Vets

Thanks for allowing me to get this message out.

Back in early 2005, I first began paying attention to all the chatter about how the Federal and State Governments have programs designed to encourage minority small businesses, Hispanic small businesses, and women owned businesses. Setting aside funds to start and expand minority businesses, the government pledged to help by reserving a given amount of contracts strictly for these businesses, in order too reduce competition in the favor of small businesses owned by minorities. It seemed to be a noble cause.
Upon more searching, I discovered that the federal government was starting to adopt the practice of including veteran owned and disabled veteran owned businesses into their overall subcontracting plans, by way of PL 10-183, which became law in 2002. The federal government would include service disabled veteran owned businesses, with a goal of 3%. Once again, the idea seemed noble on the face. After all, if anyone should have an opportunity to live the American Dream, it should be the people who defended this dream.
There is much still wrong with the implementation of PL 108-183, and how it could achieve greater results, but that isn’t the battle I’m fighting at this time.
The Commonwealth of PA, through its Department of General Services, spends @ $4.5 billion annually, on everything from construction of new buildings to the toilet paper in those buildings. They buy light bulbs, cleaning supplies, and other necessities with those funds, and they spend 10% of that with minority and women owned businesses. Yes, DGS awards $450 million annually to women owned and minority owned businesses within the state of Pennsylvania. This is one of Governor Ed Rendell’s initiatives to help small struggling businesses within certain minority group profiles. It is inarguably a fabulous initiative, and it produces wonderful results.
In the North Building in Harrisburg resides the expansive office of MWBE (minority and women business enterprise), with a fully funded staff of about 30 employees, a high level Director, expense accounts, and more.
MWBE’s primary goal and purpose is to seek out and encourage minority and women owned businesses to take advantage of state designated contracts made available to them. Again, this is a great initiative.
There is just one problem: Where are the veteran-owned and disabled veteran-owned small businesses in this administration’s plans?
I discovered to my dismay that there are indeed none. There are not any opportunities for the vets, and there is no one speaking for them in DGS, as the MWBE is for their recipients.

I thought I’d try to change it.
In late 2005, knowing nothing of politics or how a bill gets created and becomes law, I contacted my local state representative. We discussed the idea and all of the pros and cons. We attended hearings and I was called to testify to the Senate Majority Policy Committee in Sept 2006. I testified as to why this initiative is needed, and about the impact such a Bill could have for veterans and disabled veterans within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The Bill introduced into the Senate, on behalf of veteran owned businesses, was SB 1353. This Bill requested that the state and its departments include honorably discharged veterans who operate their own small business, with a 5% contracting preference. The Bill also asked the state to appoint a Director’s level position within DGS, which would look out for the vets and make policies on their behalf.
At that time, service disabled veterans were not written into the Bill. I was informed that bills should be kept simple in order to have them passed and on the books quicker. Then, I was informed, it would be simple to return to the Bill and add service disabled veterans to the policy. I was told that the legislation would then be approved faster and without a fight, because of the fact that there is something already down on paper.

SB 1353 passed in the Senate and all her committees on Oct 23, 2006. The Senate - knowing this Bill’s importance to our veterans - held hearings, took votes, and unanimously passed this legislation with a vote of 49-0. There was no opposition whatsoever. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate came together without debate to pass this bill. On Oct 24, 2006, this legislation was given to the House Of Representatives for consideration.
While in the House, this Bill was effectively killed by lack of action.

Upon the end of legislative cycle 2005-2006, all unfinished business must be re-introduced in the next legislative cycle. A bill only has a life span of 2 years. We had to start over, with the new Bill receiving a new number.
SB 1353 was re-introduced in the Senate and became SB 87. SB 87 was introduced in February of 2007, and it passed in the Senate with a vote of 50-0, in June 2007.
I was ready to order the champagne.

It was immediately sent to the House for their consideration, and the Bill was placed in the House Veterans affairs and Emergency Preparedness committee.
And here’s where more problems – problems of politics - came into play.
Little did I know that when SB 1353 hit the House, certain members of the House became inflamed at the idea that a Republican had started legislation for veterans and that therefore, the Democrats would not receive credit for this action. Not to be outdone, the Democrats in the House introduced their own legislation for veterans. They introduced HB 62. This bill would call for including service disabled veteran-owned businesses in state contracts, and it would also call for a 5% preference. HB 62 was introduced in January of 2007.
I thought that we’d hit a home run. This is what we wanted all along. The state would match the 10% that they provide for minorities and women owned businesses, and 10% would go to veteran owned and disabled veteran owned businesses.
Mistakenly, I thought that this was a great win. After June 2007, though, I started calling around to various representatives to find any status or progress on these 2 bills, and I found myself having to contact one person. Both of these pieces of legislation to help veterans were stuck in the House Veterans Affairs committee, and if I wanted any information, I would have to go through them.
So I called. And I called. And I called.
After a few months of relentless calling, I received a return phone call from Pat Cusik. He is Tony Melio’s assistant, and he handles all the veteran affairs bills. Pat informed me that DGS had the legislation and was considering it, and that he had to wait to hear from them. He said to give it a few weeks. After all, DGS had to hire a new director to oversee the veterans inclusion and programs. I agreed to wait, thinking that possibly they really did need more time to implement the change.
A few more months passed by, with Pat Cusik telling me that DGS was still holding it up.
I was starting to get the feeling that I was in the midst and mire of my first political run-around.
I called DGS. It took a long time, and many phone calls, but I finally secured a meeting with James Creedan, the Secretary of General Services, and with Sean Pressmann, his Chief of Staff. What I discovered was that DGS cannot make a law, stop a law, or even delay a bill. They just have to abide by them.
Sean did make it clear that they oppose these two bills. He indicated that the programs they have for minorities and women owned businesses are not laws, but rather programs that were implemented at the Governor’s request.
So I went back to Pat Cusik.
After 2 years of lobbying him to get Tony to bring SB 87 and HB 62 up for vote and passage, both bills died in his committee. Niether piece of legislation was considered, nor was it referred anywhere, and no votes were taken on them. Remember, SB 87 passed the full Senate 50-0, with bi-partisan support from everyone, but then it failed to come up for vote in Tony’s committee in the House.
After attempting every last resource I could find, I finally received a phone call from Tony Melio. After 3 years, Melio finally returned my phone call, in late October of 2008. The man had the gall to use the terms “our side” and “their side,” and “us and them”, when referring to Republicans and Democrats in both the Senate and the House. Melio told me that the upcoming election was historic, and that there was no way that he could allow a Republican bill helping veterans to get passed.
I was stunned.
Veterans and disabled veterans lost over $900 million in opportunities because of one man and political partisanship?
This didn’t happen in the Senate, where the Bills passed unanimously 49-0, 50-0.

Now here we are again, with another legislative cycle. We have to start all over . . . again.
Once again, the house bill is HB 350, and the Senate Bill is SB 162. Same bills; different numbers.
The House now wants to cut the opportunities for service disabled veterans to 2.5% now, instead of the 5% originally requested. This is being done as per the request of DGS. To make matters worse, Sean Pressmann and DGS have expressed their intensions of not supporting any veterans legislation or programs at all, because the Senator who originally drafted this for the veteran is currently asking to see cuts in all spending that is not deemed necessary or essential.

The Department of General Services works directly for the Governor.
How the Governor and Tony Melio can continue to treat veterans this way is beyond me, and it needs to stop. To date, it is estimated that veterans and disabled veterans lost over $1.3 billion in contracting opportunities, and they’ve lost these chances of advancement to political games at the hands of Tony Melio and the Governors Department of General Services.

David Gindele
Disabled veteran business owner
VFW Member
Chairman --Give A Vet A Chance (veterans non-profit organization)