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North Carolina legislature mulls assistance to disabled veteran-owned businesses

A bill was recently introduced in the House of the North Carolina state legislature which would give disabled-veteran-owned businesses (DVBEs) a leg up in winning state contracts. The bill, HB 954, is currently moving through committee processes.

The bill would give DVBEs (or, as the bill's language makes clear, any business at least 51 percent owned by one or more veterans with service-connected disabilities rated at 60 percent or higher, with no provision made for a specific certifying authority) the opportunity to match the low bid on any given state contract, provided that their bid was within at least 10 percent of the amount of the original low bid. The original bill gave such DVBEs an outright 10 percent preference; however, the most recent version of the bill merely gives such DVBEs the aforementioned opportunity to try and match the price of the lowest bidder, provided that that bidder is not also a DVBE. Any submission of such a matching bid under the bill would need to be accompanied by documentation of the business's ownership and the owner's veteran and disability status.

The bill would become effective on October 1, 2019, if passed. It may be read (in its various versions) at https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2019/H954.