First we had unhinged anchor Howard Beale in the movie “Network,” who was mad as hell and couldn’t take it anymore.
Now there is Republican Rep. Don Manzullo of Egan. He seemed just as irate one sunny afternoon last week.
“I’m just not going to put up with this anymore!” he proclaimed, in full rhetorical throttle at a House hearing, leaving me with the impression that he might shortly climb the nearest ledge at the U.S. Capitol and inspire instant “BREAKING NEWS” coverage from one or more cable channels.
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“That’s right, Andrea, the little-known Illinois congressman has been seen previously in the same room with Gary Condit,” I imagined a crack correspondent revealing.
“Though they have apparently never spoken, we still can’t rule out the possibility that this fit of rage is tied to the Chandra Levy disappearance, which will be the subject of `Larry King Live’ for the 36th consecutive show this evening here on CNN. Larry’s guest for the full hour will be the young paper boy who delivers the Modesto Bee to the Condit residence.”
Manzullo’s real-life declaration, and the reverie it inspired, was all very curious because the word is that Manzullo, a tidy, white-haired fellow who resembles a small-town banker or barber, is an understated man of distinctly conservative bent who even has home-schooled two of his children.
But he is chagrined with an institution dear to Republicans, namely the Defense Department, which these days is fixated mostly on paving the way for a missile defense shield and in pushing through an $18 billion extra appropriation.
Manzullo, 57, is focused less on missile defense, or where one will find $18 billion amid a declining surplus, than on how the government parcels out all the hundreds of contracts involved in building a missile defense or a new barracks, or getting toilet paper for the Los Alamos Lab.
That’s because Manzullo, a grocery owner’s lawyer son who represents John Anderson’s old Rockford-area district, is chairman of the House Small Business Committee, a position that does not carry vast prestige.
Well, just between us, the committee probably exists in the lower third of the lower quintile of congressional cachet, right in the vicinity of the House Administration Committee, whose tasks include doling out office space, and the staffless, two-member House Wellness Center Committee, now dealing with female members’ complaints about their inferior workout room and lack of lockers for them off the pool.
Manzullo’s panel convened in a small room, delayed by a speech to Congress by Mexican President Vicente Fox. It was an address many members could not be bothered to attend–prompting cadres of yuppies and other staffers to fill empty seats lest Fox think our esteemed pols were less than riveted by his appearance.
The subject for Manzullo’s panel was the government’s alleged shafting of Everyman or, in this case, EveryBusinessman, namely how procurement policies constantly seem to favor the high and the mighty of Corporate America.
“I never thought I would say this as a conservative,” Manzullo told me later, “but we are concentrating power and wealth in the hands of a few big firms at the expense of thousands of smaller ones. And it’s wrong.”
Yikes. Do we have a dramatic life’s turnaround here?
Not really. Still, Manzullo is moved by the reality that the Pentagon spends nearly 60 percent of $200 billion spent by the government annually on goods and services from the private sector. And it’s clear, if no surprise, that the businesses whose existence is the panel’s reason for being don’t tend to share the wealth.
The Pentagon claims that about 22 percent of prime contract dollars go to small businesses (the definition of which varies, but in the manufacturing sector, it’s 500 or fewer workers). It concedes it has fallen short, while its critics dispute that figure, saying that, for example, a contract might go to a small, minority-run firm that then subcontracts the chunk of real work to huge companies.
Manzullo’s ire is shared by an unlikely ally, a liberal Democrat from Brooklyn, Nydia Velazquez. She’s short of being a “player” even in the New York delegation–about 10 miles short, apparently–and is best-known among some reporters covering her for forcing her staff to be in the office at exceptionally early hours for Congress, like 7:30 a.m.
But she is adamant about the government circumventing small businesses, especially by “bundling” contracts, meaning that it increasingly combines an array of needs in one contract and insists that any bidder be able to fulfill each need. That clearly tilts things toward the big guys, with the government claiming a mere desire for greater efficiency and for cutting costs.
Manzullo and Velazquez dispute the premise, citing examples where a big-shot winner got a contract despite charging more–in some cases far more–for elements of a contract than losing small-shot bidders did.
“Here we are again to ask the Pentagon why its contracting practices are so unfair, costing small businesses $2 billion and the taxpayer untold savings,” said Velazquez, a rather intense lady who resembled a humorless prosecutor in a B movie.
“I expect to hear the same old tired talk about how the Defense Department is making the effort,” she said. Bundling, in particular, was pernicious, threatening small businesses nationwide, she said. At stake was nothing less than “keeping small business in business.”
At the hearing, an Ohio woman testified that she lost out on a $1 million contract even though the price she could have supplied for electronic connectors, $11.98 apiece, was far less than the $19.63 bid by the winner, a firm employing prisoner labor that had the inside track given procurement rules.
“We’re going to issue subpoenas for the people who made the decision. We’re going to put them under oath!” thundered a still-simmering Manzullo.
As most hearings, this one was stacked to make a predetermined point. It was loaded with unhappy voices from the small-business community, some of whom clearly are experienced at testifying as unhappy voices from the small-business community. There was only one Pentagon official, sort of.
Well, it was supposed to be the Big Cheese for Acquisition, also known as the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. But he copped an excuse, claiming his schedule was now just too filled with other important matters.
This was a de facto dissing, which Manzullo strained mightily to be gracious about, saying he was sure that these other matters were indeed important.
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So instead, he was faced with leftovers in the presence of Air Force Col. Curtis Wright, the acting director of small and disadvantaged businesses at the Defense Department.
Wright proceeded to read the statement of the guy who should have been there! And, as Velazquez figured, it was a pretty lame statement, touting some successes, conceding more should be done and announcing some new initiatives, such as starting a “discussion of the status of small business subcontracting” in annual contractor reviews with the biggest firms in the land.
Manzullo would soon suggest that certain members of the House and Senate be involved in such internal reviews, so that small-business representatives need not fly all the way here to testify “about how they’re getting thumped by the Department of Defense.”
Of course, not all small businesses are being thumped. Take Amurol Confections Co. of Yorkville, right smack in the middle of Speaker Dennis Hastert’s district.
He got the Pentagon to spend $250,000 to study Stay Alert, a caffeinated chewing gum made by Amurol. If the Pentagon gives the go-ahead, the 400-person firm will be a small-business winner, a subject they did not desire to discuss when I called two of its executives Friday.
Oh, don’t be so nervous, guys. Just imagine: You could one day set up a kiosk outside the House and Senate, offering Stay Alert for those intrepid souls showing up at small-business and other august committee hearings.