Advocates urge stronger enforcement, transparency and loans for New Jersey veteran-owned businesses

Trenton — Witnesses at Monday’s Assembly Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing pressed lawmakers to tighten enforcement and expand supports for veteran-owned businesses, saying the state has long failed to meet its DVOB procurement target.

"The highest the state has ever gotten to that law is 0.9%. Last year was 0.5%, and roughly the year before that was 0.2%," said Jeff Cantor, a representative of the New Jersey Veterans Chamber of Commerce, laying out the group's priority bills and policy changes. Cantor urged adding liquidated-damages provisions to state RFPs, which would fine contractors that fail to make a good-faith effort to subcontract with veteran-owned firms.

The chamber also asked the Legislature to require each state agency to publish how much it spends with veteran‑owned and disabled‑veteran‑owned firms and to create a NJEDA‑administered revolving fund of roughly $10 million–$20 million to help small veteran businesses cover payroll and equipment costs for state contracts, Cantor said. He recommended tax incentives for large companies that subcontract to veteran firms and an expansion of E‑ZPass fee waivers to major veterans service organizations that travel statewide.

Cantor described the state’s certification portal, NJ Savvy, as "antiquated" and hard to use. He said the Veterans Chamber received a grant to build smalldiverselocal.com, a private–public portal intended to consolidate certifications and make procurement spending easier to track for state professionals.

Committee members asked whether incentives could replace penalties. "To me, I would think something incentivizing other than doing the right thing might help drive those numbers up," one member said. Cantor replied that while tax carrots can help, examples from state projects suggest liquidated-damages clauses produce measurable compliance: "When EDA put out RFPs...they put liquidated damages in the RFP. They, sure enough, met their obligations for veteran and disabled veteran owned businesses."

Advocates also proposed a "first look" policy so agencies and authorities would check for veteran-, disabled-veteran- or military‑spouse‑owned businesses before conducting broader procurements, and a state certification for military-spouse‑owned companies, which Cantor said currently does not exist.

Why it matters: Advocates say the proposals would translate policy goals into verifiable results by making procurement officers’ spending transparent and by creating both financial and contractual leverage to increase subcontracting to veteran businesses. Lawmakers face trade-offs between creating new enforcement mechanisms and maintaining procurement flexibility.

What’s next: The committee took testimony and discussed follow-up legislation; no votes were recorded at the hearing.

Quotes from the hearing are drawn directly from testimony before the Assembly Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee.