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[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1839 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1839

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 19, 2009

 Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business 
                          and Entrepreneurship

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT

 
    To amend the Small Business Act to improve SCORE, and for other 
                               purposes.

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

SECTION 1. EXPANSION OF VOLUNTEER REPRESENTATION AND BENCHMARK REPORTS.

    (a) Expansion of Volunteer Representation.--Section 8(b)(1)(B) of 
the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 637(b)(1)(B)) is amended--
            (1) by inserting ``(i)'' after ``(B)''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(ii) The Administrator shall ensure that SCORE, 
        established under this subparagraph, carries out a plan to 
        increase the proportion of mentors who are from socially or 
        economically disadvantaged backgrounds and, on an annual basis, 
        reports to the Administrator on the implementation of this 
        subparagraph.''.
    (b) Benchmark Reports.--Section 8(b)(1)(B) of the Small Business 
Act (15 U.S.C. 637(b)(1)(B)), as amended, is further amended by adding 
at the end the following:
            ``(iii) The Administrator shall ensure that SCORE, 
        established under this subparagraph, establishes benchmarks for 
        use in evaluating the performance of its activities and of its 
        volunteers. The benchmarks shall include benchmarks relating to 
        the demographic characteristics and the geographic 
        characteristics of persons assisted by SCORE, benchmarks 
        related to the hours spent mentoring by volunteers, and 
        benchmarks relating to the performance of the persons assisted 
        by SCORE. SCORE shall report, on an annual basis, to the 
        Administrator the extent to which the benchmarks established 
        under this clause are being attained.''.

SEC. 2. MENTORING AND NETWORKING.

    Section 8(b)(1)(B) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 
637(b)(1)(B)), as amended, is further amended by adding at the end the 
following:
            ``(iv) The Administrator shall ensure that SCORE, 
        established under this subparagraph, establishes a mentoring 
        program for small business concerns that provides one-on-one 
        advice to small business concerns from qualified counselors. 
        For purposes of this clause, qualified counselors are 
        counselors with at least 10 years experience in the industry 
        sector or area of responsibility of the small business concern 
        seeking advice.
            ``(v) The Administrator shall carry out a networking 
        program through SCORE, established under this subparagraph, 
        that provides small business concerns with the opportunity to 
        make business contacts in their industry or geographic 
        region.''.

SEC. 3. NAME OF PROGRAM CHANGED TO SCORE.

    (a) Name Change.--The Small Business Act is amended as follows:
            (1) In section 8(b)(1)(B) (15 U.S.C. 637(b)(1)(B)), by 
        striking ``Executives (SCORE)'' and inserting ``Executives (in 
        this Act referred to as `SCORE')''.
            (2) In section 7(m)(3)(A)(i)(VIII) (15 U.S.C. 
        636(m)(3)(A)(i)(VIII)), by striking ``the Service Corps of 
        Retired Executives'' and inserting ``SCORE''.
            (3) In section 20 (15 U.S.C. 631 note)--
                    (A) in subsection (d)(1)(E), by striking ``the 
                Service Corps of Retired Executives program'' and 
                inserting ``SCORE''; and
                    (B) in subsection (e)(1)(E), by striking ``the 
                Service Corps of Retired Executives program'' and 
                inserting ``SCORE''.
            (4) In section 33(b)(2) (15 U.S.C. 657c(b)(2)), by striking 
        ``Service Corps of Retired Executives'' and inserting 
        ``SCORE''.
    (b) Elimination of ACE.--Section 8(b)(1)(B) of the Small Business 
Act (15 U.S.C. 637(b)(1)(B)), as amended, is further amended by 
striking ``and an Active Corps of Executive (ACE)''.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    Section 20 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 631 note) is 
amended by inserting the following new subsection after subsection (e):
    ``(f) Authorization of Appropriations for SCORE.--There is 
authorized to be appropriated $7,000,000 for SCORE under section 
8(b)(1) for each of the fiscal years 2010 and 2011.''.

            Passed the House of Representatives November 18, 2009.

            Attest:

                                            LORRAINE C. MILLER,

                                                                 Clerk.
```