I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2299 

To amend the Small Business Act to enhance services to small business 

concerns that are disadvantaged, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 7, 2009 

Mr. RUSH (for himself, Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida, Mr. COHEN, Mr. 

ISRAEL, Mr. CLAY, Mr. ORTIZ, Ms. FUDGE, Mr. MOORE of Kansas, Mr. 

BARROW, Mr. CROWLEY, Mr. ROSS, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. CLYBURN, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Mr. 

TOWNS, Ms. CLARKE, Mr. CUMMINGS, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. WEINER, Mr. 

MCDERMOTT, Ms. EDWARDS of Maryland, Mrs. TAUSCHER, Mr. 

PERLMUTTER, Ms. KAPTUR, and Mr. LANGEVIN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Small Business 

A BILL 

To amend the Small Business Act to enhance services to 

small business concerns that are disadvantaged, 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 ‘‘Minority Small Busi5 ness Enhancement Act of 2009’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. ENHANCEMENT OF SERVICES TO SMALL BUSI2 NESSES THAT ARE DISADVANTAGED. 

3 (a) NET WORTH.—Section 8(a)(6)(A) of the Small 

4 Business Act (15 U.S.C. 637(a)(6)(A)) is amended by in5 serting after ‘‘disadvantaged individual.’’ the following: 

6 ‘‘For purposes of eligibility for admission as a Program 

7 Participant and for continued eligibility after admission, 

8 the net worth of such individual may be any amount less 

9 than $1,500,000.’’. 

10 (b) TIME LIMIT ON PARTICIPATION.—Section 

11 7(j)(15) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(j)(15)) 

12 is amended— 

13 (1) by redesignating subparagraphs (A) and 

14 (B) as clauses (i) and (ii), respectively; 

15 (2) by inserting ‘‘(A)’’ after ‘‘(15)’’; and 

16 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

17 ‘‘(B) No time limitation relating to the period that 

18 a small business concern may receive developmental assist19 ance under the Program and contracts under section 8(a) 

20 shall apply to a small business concern that has not com21 pleted a contract under section 8(a).’’. 

22 SEC. 3. SURETY BOND GUARANTEES. 

23 Section 508(f) of division A of the American Recovery 

24 and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111–5; 123 

25 Stat. 159) is amended by striking ‘‘amendments made by 


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1 this section’’ and inserting ‘‘amendment made by sub2 section (c)’’. 

3 SEC. 4. BUNDLED CONTRACTS. 

4 (a) DEFINITION.—Section 3(o) of the Small Business 

5 Act (15 U.S.C. 632(o)) is amended to read as follows: 

6 ‘‘(o) DEFINITIONS OF BUNDLING OF CONTRACT RE7 QUIREMENTS AND RELATED TERMS.—For purposes of 

8 this Act: 

9 ‘‘(1) BUNDLED CONTRACT.— 

10 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘bundled 

11 contract’ means a contract or order that is en12 tered into to meet procurement requirements 

13 that are consolidated in a bundling of contract 

14 requirements, without regard to its designation 

15 by the procuring agency or whether a study of 

16 the effects of the solicitation on civilian or mili17 tary personnel has been made. 

18 ‘‘(B) EXCEPTIONS.—The term does not in19 clude— 

20 ‘‘(i) a contract or order with an aggre21 gate dollar value below the dollar threshold 

22 specified in paragraph (5); or 

23 ‘‘(ii) a contract or order that is en24 tered into to meet procurement requireVerDate Nov 24 2008 03:52 May 09, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2299.IH H2299

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1 ments, all of which are exempted require2 ments under paragraph (6). 

3 ‘‘(2) BUNDLING OF CONTRACT REQUIRE4 MENTS.— 

5 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘bundling of 

6 contract requirements’ means the use of any 

7 bundling methodology to satisfy 2 or more pro8 curement requirements for goods or services 

9 previously supplied or performed under separate 

10 smaller contracts or orders, or to satisfy 2 or 

11 more procurement requirements for construc12 tion services of a type historically performed 

13 under separate smaller contracts or orders, that 

14 is likely to be unsuitable for award to a small 

15 business concern due to— 

16 ‘‘(i) the diversity, size, or specialized 

17 nature of the elements of the performance 

18 specified; 

19 ‘‘(ii) the aggregate dollar value of the 

20 anticipated award; 

21 ‘‘(iii) the geographical dispersion of 

22 the contract or order performance sites; or 

23 ‘‘(iv) any combination of the factors 

24 described in clauses (i), (ii), and (iii). 


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1 ‘‘(B) INCLUSION OF NEW FEATURES OR

2 FUNCTIONS.—A combination of contract re3 quirements that would meet the definition of a 

4 bundling of contract requirements but for the 

5 addition of a procurement requirement with at 

6 least one new good or service shall be consid7 ered to be a bundling of contract requirements 

8 unless the new features or functions substan9 tially transform the goods or services and will 

10 provide measurably substantial benefits to the 

11 government in terms of quality, performance, or 

12 price. 

13 ‘‘(C) EXCEPTIONS.—The term does not in14 clude— 

15 ‘‘(i) the use of a bundling method16 ology for an anticipated award with an ag17 gregate dollar value below the dollar 

18 threshold specified in paragraph (5); or 

19 ‘‘(ii) the use of a bundling method20 ology to meet procurement requirements, 

21 all of which are exempted requirements 

22 under paragraph (6). 

23 ‘‘(3) BUNDLING METHODOLOGY.—The term 

24 ‘bundling methodology’ means— 


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1 ‘‘(A) a solicitation to obtain offers for a 

2 single contract or order, or a multiple award 

3 contract or order; or 

4 ‘‘(B) a solicitation of offers for the 

5 issuance of a task or a delivery order under an 

6 existing single or multiple award contract or 

7 order. 

8 ‘‘(4) SEPARATE SMALLER CONTRACT.—The 

9 term ‘separate smaller contract’, with respect to 

10 bundling of contract requirements, means a contract 

11 or order that has been performed by 1 or more small 

12 business concerns or was suitable for award to 1 or 

13 more small business concerns. 

14 ‘‘(5) DOLLAR THRESHOLD.—The term ‘dollar 

15 threshold’ means $65,000,000, if solely for construc16 tion services, and $5,000,000 with respect to all 

17 other circumstances. 

18 ‘‘(6) EXEMPTED REQUIREMENTS.—The term 

19 ‘exempted requirement’ means a procurement re20 quirement solely for items that are not commercial 

21 items (as the term ‘commercial item’ is defined in 

22 section 4(12) of the Office of Federal Procurement 

23 Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 403(12)). 

24 ‘‘(7) PROCUREMENT REQUIREMENT.—The term 

25 ‘procurement requirement’ means a determination 


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1 by an agency that a specified good or service is 

2 needed to satisfy the mission of the agency.’’. 

3 (b) PROPOSED PROCUREMENT REQUIREMENTS.— 

4 Section 15(a) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 

5 644(a)) is amended— 

6 (1) by striking ‘‘necessary and justified.’’ and 

7 inserting ‘‘necessary and justified, as well as identi8 fying information on the incumbent contract holders, 

9 a description of the industries which might be inter10 ested in bidding on the contract requirements, and 

11 the number of small businesses listed in the industry 

12 categories that could be excluded from future bid13 ding if the contract is combined or packaged.’’; and 

14 (2) by striking the sentence beginning ‘‘When15 ever the Administration and the contracting procure16 ment agency fail to agree,’’ and inserting the fol17 lowing: ‘‘Whenever the Administration and the con18 tracting procurement agency fail to agree, the Ad19 ministrator may review the proposed procurement, 

20 may delay the solicitation process for not more than 

21 10 days to make recommendations, and the matter 

22 shall be submitted to the Director of the Office of 

23 Management and Budget to mediate the disagree24 ment.’’. 


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1 SEC. 5. FEDERAL CONTRACTING GOALS. 

2 (a) INCREASE IN CERTAIN GOALS.—Section 15(g)(1) 

3 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 644(g)(1)) is 

4 amended— 

5 (1) by striking ‘‘not less than 23 percent’’ and 

6 inserting ‘‘not less than 25 percent’’; and 

7 (2) by striking ‘‘not less than 5 percent’’ each 

8 place it appears and inserting ‘‘not less than 10 per9 cent’’. 

10 (b) LIMITATION ON NUMBER OF CATEGORIES FOR

11 WHICH A BUSINESS MAY QUALIFY.—Section 15(g) of the 

12 Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 644(g)) is amended by 

13 adding at the end the following: 

14 ‘‘(3) For purposes of this subsection and subsection 

15 (h), with respect to each procurement contract a small 

16 business concern may not qualify as more than 2 specified 

17 categories, regardless of whether such small business con18 cern satisfies the definition of more than 2 specified cat19 egories. The specified categories are small business con20 cerns, small business concerns owned and controlled by 

21 service-disabled veterans, qualified HUBZone small busi22 ness concerns, small business concerns owned and con23 trolled by socially and economically disadvantaged individ24 uals, and small business concerns owned and controlled 

25 by women.’’. 


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1 (c) GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE

2 STUDY.—Not later than October 1, 2010, the Comptroller 

3 General of the United States shall conduct and submit to 

4 Congress a report describing the results of a study on dis5 parities in the awarding of Federal contracts to procure 

6 goods or services with respect to small business concerns 

7 owned and controlled by socially and economically dis8 advantaged individuals, small business concerns, and other 

9 business concerns. 

Æ 


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