Congressional Record

Vol. 146 -- WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, MAY 23, 2000 -- No. 65

THE MATCHMAKERS (Senate - May 23, 2000)

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, when journalists and political scientists write about the activities here, they often prepare articles about how a bill becomes a law. That is an interesting study, but it is only half of the story. In fact, it is equally interesting to see how a law becomes a program--how words on the law books are transformed into a working program that delivers services to our constituents.

The key to that process is people. Ultimately, someone has to take responsibility for carrying out the laws we craft here. Today I want to recognize a group of people who are aggressively working to give life to the HUBZone program we passed in 1997.

The HUBZone program seeks to use the Government's purchasing power to encourage economic growth and job creation in the Nation's most intransigent areas of poverty and unemployment. These areas often present the greatest challenge because they lack a strong customer base.

As a result, small businesses tend not to locate in these areas, preferring to set up their operations in more prosperous areas that have an established stream of customer traffic. The HUBZone program seeks to offset this imbalance by making the Government a customer to firms willing to invest in these hard-to-reach communities.

Over two years have passed since the HUBZone program was signed into law, but progress has been very slow. Recently the Small Business Administration certified the 1,000th HUBZone small business concern, a major milestone. However, the need is much greater. Without a large base of certified firms, the Government will not have enough participating companies to do business on the scale we envisioned in writing the program.

Because of this lack of certified companies, some agencies are throwing up their hands and opting not to carry out the HUBZone law. Without enough vendors to bid on contracts, some agencies are letting this tremendous new resource sit idle.

Defense Department agencies in the New England States have proved an exception to that rule. The Northeast Regional Council, which comprises small business officers from Defense agencies and Procurement Technical Assistance Centers, along with defense contractors large and small, created a special High Performance Team dubbed `The Matchmakers' to identify problems in implementing the HUBZone program and to work aggressively to solve them.

The Matchmakers found six components that were mismatched (`the hexa-mismatch problem'): contract requirements, suppliers, commodities, agency databases, education and benefits under the program, and the HUBZones themselves. For example, commodities to be purchased were not matched with suppliers who could provide them, and those suppliers were not necessarily matched to HUBZone areas that would make them eligible to participate.

Having distilled the problem to its most basic elements, the Matchmakers are now setting out to track down suppliers who could fill the agencies' procurement needs, identify those that are located in HUBZones, educate them about the program benefits, and get them to apply for certification.

Mr. President, this kind of aggressive action is exactly what is necessary to transform the HUBZone Act from mere words on a page into a program that helps real people and communities. Someday, when the HUBZone program is delivering benefits and creating jobs for people who currently do not have them, it will be essential to remember the people who made it possible. So that their names are not forgotten, I ask to include in the Record a list of the members of the Matchmakers High Performance

Team, and I call the attention of my colleagues to their leadership and hard work.

Richard S. Alexander, Market Development Center, Bangor, ME

Ronald R. Belden, Kollsman Inc., Merrimack, NH

Deborah Bode, Kaman Aerospace Corporation, Bloomfield, CT

Cynthia Busch, Market Development Center, Bangor, ME

Sean Crean, Small Business Administration, Augusta, ME

Carl E. Cromer, Defense Contact Management Command, Hartford, CT

Janette Fasano, Small Business Administration, Boston, MA

Joseph M. Flynn, New Hampshire Office of Business and Industrial Development, Concord, NH

John Forcucci, BBN Corporation, Cambridge, MA

Benita Fortner, Raytheon Company, Lexington, MA

Len Green, Massachusetts Small Business Development Center, Salem, MA

Keith Hubbard, Small Business Administration, Bedford, MA

Maridee N. Kirwin, GEO-Centers, Inc., Newton Center, MA

Gregory Lawson, State of Vermont Department of Economic Development, Montpelier, VT

Ken Lewis, Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, Providence, RI

John H. McMullen, General Dynamics Government Services Corporation, Needham Heights, MA

David J. Rego, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport, Newport, RI

Barbara A. Riley, Textron Systems, Wilmington, MA

Michael Robinson, Massachusetts Procurement Technical Assistance Center, Amherst, MA

Philip R. Varney, Defense Contract Management Command, Boston, MA

Arlene M. Vogel, Connecticut Procurement Technical Assistance Center, New London, CT