I 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4121 

To provide for a program to provide Federal contracts to early stage small 

businesses, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 1, 2012 

Mr. SCHRADER (for himself, Ms. HAHN, Mr. CICILLINE, Ms. CHU, Ms. 

VELA ́ZQUEZ, Mr. PETERS, and Mr. RICHMOND) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Small Business 

A BILL 

To provide for a program to provide Federal contracts to 

early stage small businesses, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Early Stage Small 

5 Business Contracting Act of 2012’’. 

6 SEC. 2. IN GENERAL. 

7 The Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 631 et seq.) is 

8 amended by adding at the end the following: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 46. PROGRAM TO PROVIDE FEDERAL CONTRACTS TO 

2 EARLY STAGE SMALL BUSINESSES. 

3 ‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Administrator shall es4 tablish and carry out a program in accordance with the 

5 requirements of this section to provide improved access to 

6 Federal contract opportunities for early stage small busi7 ness concerns. 

8 ‘‘(b) PROCUREMENT CONTRACTS.— 

9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out subsection 

10 (a), the Administrator, in consultation with other 

11 Federal agencies, shall identify procurement con12 tracts of Federal agencies for award under the pro13 gram. 

14 ‘‘(2) CONTRACT AWARDS.—Under the program 

15 established pursuant to this section, the award of a 

16 procurement contract of a Federal agency identified 

17 by the Administrator pursuant to paragraph (1) 

18 shall be made by the agency to an eligible program 

19 participant selected, and determined to be respon20 sible, by the agency. 

21 ‘‘(3) COMPETITION.— 

22 ‘‘(A) SOLE SOURCE.—A contracting officer 

23 may award a sole source contract under this 

24 program if such concern is determined to be a 

25 responsible contractor with respect to perform26 ance of such contract opportunity and the conVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:16 Mar 02, 2012 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4121.IH H4121

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1 tracting officer does not have a reasonable ex2 pectation that 2 or more early stage small busi3 ness concerns will submit offers for the con4 tracting opportunity and in the estimation of 

5 the contracting officer, the contract award can 

6 be made at a fair and reasonable price. 

7 ‘‘(B) RESTRICTED COMPETITION.—A con8 tracting officer may award contracts on the 

9 basis of competition restricted to early stage 

10 small business concerns if the contracting offi11 cer has a reasonable expectation that not less 

12 than 2 early stage small business concerns will 

13 submit offers and that the award can be made 

14 at a fair market price. 

15 ‘‘(4) CONTRACT VALUE.—Contracts shall be 

16 awarded under this program if its value is greater 

17 than $3,000 and less than half the upper threshold 

18 of Section 15(j)(1) of the Small Business Act. 

19 ‘‘(c) ELIGIBILITY.—Only an early stage small busi20 ness concern shall be eligible to compete for a contract 

21 to be awarded under the program. The Administrator shall 

22 certify that a small business concern is an early stage 

23 small business concern, or the Administrator shall approve 

24 a Federal agency, a State government, or a national certiVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:16 Mar 02, 2012 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4121.IH H4121

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1 fying entity to certify that the business meets the eligi2 bility criteria of an early stage small business concern. 

3 ‘‘(d) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Administrator 

4 shall provide early stage small business concerns with 

5 technical assistance and counseling with regard to— 

6 ‘‘(1) applying for and competing for Federal 

7 contracts; and 

8 ‘‘(2) fulfilling the administrative responsibilities 

9 associated with the performance of a Federal con10 tract. 

11 ‘‘(e) ATTAINMENT OF CONTRACT GOALS.—All con12 tract awards made under the program shall be counted 

13 toward the attainment of the goals specified in section 

14 15(g) of the Small Business Act. 

15 ‘‘(f) REGULATIONS.—The Administrator shall— 

16 ‘‘(1) issue proposed regulations to carry out 

17 this section not later than 180 days after the date 

18 of enactment of this Act; and 

19 ‘‘(2) issue final regulations to carry out this 

20 section not later than 270 days after the date of en21 actment of this Act. 

22 ‘‘(g) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than April 

23 30, 2015, the Administrator shall transmit to the Con24 gress a report on the performance of the program. 


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1 ‘‘(h) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section, the 

2 following definitions shall apply: 

3 ‘‘(1) PROGRAM.—The term ‘program’ means a 

4 program established pursuant to subsection (a). 

5 ‘‘(2) EARLY STAGE SMALL BUSINESS CON6 CERN.—The term ‘early stage small business con7 cern’ means a small business concern that— 

8 ‘‘(A) has not more than 15 employees; and 

9 ‘‘(B) has average annual receipts that total 

10 not more than $1,000,000, except if the con11 cern is in an industry with an average annual 

12 revenue standard that is less than $1,000,000, 

13 as defined by the North American Industry 

14 Classification System.’’. 

Æ 


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