II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1859 

To assure equity in contracting between the Federal Government and small 

business concerns, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 23, 2015 

Mr. UDALL introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship 

A BILL 

To assure equity in contracting between the Federal Government and small business concerns, 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 ‘‘Assuring Contracting 

5 Equity Act of 2015’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FEDERAL CONTRACTING GOALS. 

7 (a) INCREASE IN CERTAIN GOALS.—Section 

8 15(g)(1)(A) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 

9 644(g)(1)(A)) is amended— 


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1 (1) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘not less than 23 

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

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

4 place that term appears and inserting ‘‘not less than 

5 10 percent’’; and 

6 (3) by striking ‘‘not less than 3 percent’’ each 

7 place that term appears and inserting ‘‘not less than 

8 6 percent’’. 

9 (b) LIMITATION ON NUMBER OF CATEGORIES FOR

10 WHICH A SMALL BUSINESS MAY QUALIFY.—Section 

11 15(g) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 644(g)) is 

12 amended by adding at the end the following: 

13 ‘‘(4) LIMITATION ON NUMBER OF CATEGORIES

14 FOR WHICH A SMALL BUSINESS MAY QUALIFY.— 

15 ‘‘(A) DEFINITION.—In this paragraph, the 

16 term ‘specified category’ means small business 

17 concerns, small business concerns owned and 

18 controlled by service-disabled veterans, qualified 

19 HUBZone small business concerns, small busi20 ness concerns owned and controlled by socially 

21 and economically disadvantaged individuals, and 

22 small business concerns owned and controlled 

23 by women. 

24 ‘‘(B) LIMITATION.—Except as provided in 

25 subparagraph (C), a Federal agency may inVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:39 Jul 27, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1859.IS S1859

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1 clude a business concern in not more than 2 

2 specified categories for purposes of determining 

3 whether the Federal agency has met the Gov4 ernment-wide goals under this subsection for 

5 the award of contracts to business concerns in 

6 specified categories. 

7 ‘‘(C) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—A Fed8 eral agency may not include a small business 

9 concern that is participating in the program 

10 under section 8(a) in any specified category ex11 cept the category ‘small business concerns 

12 owned and controlled by socially and economi13 cally disadvantaged individuals’ for purposes of 

14 determining whether the Federal agency has 

15 met the Government-wide goals under this sub16 section for the award of contracts to business 

17 concerns in specified categories.’’. 

18 SEC. 3. IMPROVING TRANSPARENCY TO ASSIST SMALL 

19 BUSINESS CONCERNS. 

20 Section 15(h)(2) of the Small Business Act (15 

21 U.S.C. 644(h)(2)) is amended— 

22 (1) in subparagraph (E)(viii)(VIII), by striking 

23 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

24 (2) in subparagraph (F), by striking the period 

25 at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 


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1 (3) by adding at the following new subpara2 graph: 

3 ‘‘(G) for the Federal Government, the per4 centage of participation by small business con5 cerns for the total value of all prime contract 

6 awards and subcontract awards for a fiscal 

7 year, including the value of each prime contract 

8 and subcontract awarded for the fiscal year.’’. 

9 SEC. 4. COMPLIANCE WITH SMALL BUSINESS SUBCON10 TRACTING GOALS. 

11 The Administrator of the Small Business Administra12 tion shall consult with the heads of other Federal agencies 

13 to develop and implement standards for procurement offi14 cers to take into consideration the past compliance of po15 tential contractors with small business subcontracting 

16 goals when making contract awards. 

Æ 


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