OPINION
A vet is a vet. That is supposed to be New Jersey’s motto for our veteran community. Today, that motto is going to be discarded by Assembly Bill 870.
The bill seems harmless, even helpful. It provides an additional preference for women veterans or active members to receive state contracts. In reality, it further subdivides the veteran community, which is a terrible idea.
While lawmakers carve up society into little pieces for special treatment, they should not do that with veterans. We are one community. We consider ourselves equal, because a veteran is a veteran, a service member is a service member. Nothing else matters.
In the Veteran community we want to bring everybody up. We don’t want to step on the heads of other veterans to get ahead. We are a team, looking for inclusion and not trying to harbor exclusion. As one female veteran told me this week “I am all about helping a sister out, but not when it comes at the expense of a fellow veteran.”
If there is proof of a disparity in the ability of female versus male veterans to obtain government contracts, then I would like to see it. If there is definitive merit to the claim then it would be an issue that needs to be addressed, but without the data to support it, this bill is a solution looking for a problem.
Women have fought hard to bring equality to the military. Ripping down barriers that limited their participation in combat arms and prevented them from the most elite training opportunities. Women have proven through their advocacy and actions time and time again that there is no reason to treat them differently. After all of that progress, this bill re-confines them to a box they worked so hard to break out of.
Every person should be treated the same, with the same expectation that they are capable of doing what they need to do to be successful. I have faith in our women veterans and soldiers to get state contracts based on their own merit. This bill says they can’t. Ask a female veteran business owner if they need your help to beat out their male counterpart in a bid and I can assure you that you will wish you hadn’t asked the question.
If a male veteran bids $910,000 for a state contract, but a female veteran bids $1 million, she wins the contract under the proposed legislation. Why? Because she is a woman. That’s offensive and the premise of the bill.
I have no doubt the intentions of the sponsors are good. But people just need to think things through. That is why the road to hell is paved with good intentions. If good intentions solved every problem, perceived or not, then New Jersey wouldn’t have problems anymore because, as a member of the state legislature, I know that every single elected official I have met ultimately wants to help the residents of their town, their county, their district, and their home state. That doesn’t even count the amazing people and organizations in New Jersey that have made helping people their life’s work.
Unfortunately, good intentions don’t lead to success. According to a report released by the Garden State Initiative and New Jersey State Veterans Chamber of Commerce, 97% of state agencies that have procurement power are not enforcing a 2015 law that requires 3% of their budgets to be set aside for contracts with businesses owned by disabled veterans. No state agency is following the legal reporting requirements. In fact, of the 3% requirement, only .5% of contracts are actually going to disabled Veterans. To fix that, there is a bill in committee today reducing the set-aside requirements. In the military, failure to accomplish your mission doesn’t mean lower your expectations, it means work harder.
Every veteran and member of the military earned their position based on merit. They succeeded or failed based on their merit.
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf said great leaders see people as individuals, each of whom have hopes, each of whom have aspirations, each of whom want to live and do good. They shouldn’t be treated better or worse than others because they are women or minorities. At West Point, cadets are taught to treat people equally. That is having character, and good character.
When the going gets tough, women veterans and active members do what they need to be successful, whether they are defending their country or growing their business. I have faith in them, and wouldn’t even consider for a second that they need extra help. They are just as capable as every other male veteran and soldier. A vet is a vet.
That is why bills like A870 shouldn’t see the light of day, because bills like that don’t exemplify what we believe as a state.