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103D CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2390

Entitled the ‘‘Mentorship for American Indian Small Enterprise Act’’.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

AUGUST 15 (legislative day, AUGUST 11), 1994

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

to the Committee on Indian Affairs

A BILL

Entitled the ‘‘Mentorship for American Indian Small

Enterprise Act’’.

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

3 SECTION 1. MICROLOAN DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM

4 AMENDMENTS.

5 (a) PURPOSES.—Section 7(m)(1)(A)(iii) of the Small

6 Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(m)(1)(A)(iii)) is amended—

7 (1) in subclause (I), by inserting ‘‘commercial

8 real estate,’’ after ‘‘acquisition of’’; and

9 (2) in subclause (III), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the

10 end;
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1 (3) by redesignating subclause (IV) as

2 subclause (VI); and

3 (4) by inserting after subclause (III) the follow4 ing new subclauses:

5 ‘‘(IV) to make grants to eligible

6 intermediaries that, together with non-Fed7 eral matching funds, will enable such

8 intermediaries to provide marketing, man9 agement, and technical assistance to

10 microloan borrowers that are members of

11 qualified Indian tribes;

12 ‘‘(V) to make grants to institutions of

13 higher education serving Indian lands that,

14 together with non-Federal matching funds,

15 will enable such institutions to provide in16 struction on marketing, management, and

17 technical assistance to eligible

18 intermediaries and to mentors, in order to

19 enable such intermediaries and mentors to

20 assist members of qualified Indian tribes

21 to obtain private sector financing for their

22 businesses, with or without loan guaran23 tees; and’’.
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1 (b) ESTABLISHMENT.—Section 7(m)(1)(B) of the

2 Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(m)(1)(B)) is amend3 ed—

4 (1) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end;

5 (2) in clause (iii), by striking the period at the

6 end and inserting a semicolon; and

7 (3) by adding at the end the following new

8 clauses:

9 ‘‘(iv) in conjunction with loans made under

10 clause (i) and subject to the requirements of

11 paragraph (4), make grants to eligible

12 intermediaries for the purpose of providing

13 marketing, management, and technical assist14 ance to members of qualified Indian tribes that

15 are seeking to start or enlarge their small busi16 ness concerns and that are borrowers under this

17 subsection; and

18 ‘‘(v) subject to the requirements of para19 graph (7), make grants to institutions of higher

20 education serving Indian lands for the purpose

21 of providing instruction on marketing, manage22 ment, and technical assistance to eligible

23 intermediaries and to mentors, in order to en24 able such intermediaries and mentors to assist

25 members of qualified Indian tribes to obtain
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1 private sector financing for their businesses,

2 with or without loan guarantees.’’.

3 (c) INTERMEDIARY APPLICATIONS.—Section

4 7(m)(3)(A)(i) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C.

5 636(m)(3)(A)(i)) is amended—

6 (1) in subclause (VII), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the

7 end;

8 (2) in subclause (VIII), by striking the period

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

10 (3) by adding at the end the following new

11 subclause:

12 ‘‘(IX) with respect to eligible

13 intermediaries serving Indian lands, any

14 plan to work with—

15 ‘‘(aa) an institution of higher

16 education that has received a grant

17 under paragraph (1)(B)(v); or

18 ‘‘(bb) a mentor that has received

19 training from any such institution of

20 higher education pursuant to such a

21 grant.’’.

22 (d) ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE GRANTS

23 FOR MAKING CERTAIN LOANS.—Section 7(m)(4) of the

24 Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(m)(4)) is amended in

25 the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘sub-
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1 paragraph (B)(ii) of paragraph (1)’’ and inserting ‘‘clause

2 (ii) or (iv) of paragraph (1)(B)’’.

3 (e) LOANS FROM ELIGIBLE INTERMEDIARIES.—Sec4 tion 7(m)(6)(A) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C.

5 636(m)(6)(A)) is amended by inserting ‘‘commercial real

6 estate,’’ after ‘‘acquisition of’’.

7 (f) GRANTS TO INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDU8 CATION.—Section 7(m) of the Small Business Act (15

9 U.S.C. 636(m)) is amended—

10 (1) by redesignating paragraphs (7) through

11 (11) as paragraphs (9) through (13), respectively;

12 and

13 (2) by inserting after paragraph (6) the follow14 ing new subparagraph:

15 ‘‘(7) GRANTS TO INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER

16 EDUCATION.—Grants made in accordance with para17 graph (1)(B)(v) shall be subject to the following re18 quirements:

19 ‘‘(A) GRANT AMOUNTS.—For each eligible

20 intermediary receiving a grant under paragraph

21 (1)(B)(iv), 1 grant shall be made to a qualified

22 institution of higher education serving the same

23 tribal lands as the eligible intermediary. The

24 amount of the grant to the institution of higher

25 education shall not exceed the grant amount re-
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1 ceived by the eligible intermediary pursuant to

2 paragraph (1)(B)(iv).

3 ‘‘(B) CONTRIBUTION.—As a condition of

4 any grant made under subparagraph (A), the

5 Administration shall require the institution of

6 higher education to contribute an amount equal

7 to 25 percent of the amount of the grant, ob8 tained solely from non-Federal sources. In addi9 tion to cash or other direct funding, the con10 tribution may include indirect costs or in-kind

11 contributions paid for under non-Federal pro12 grams.

13 ‘‘(C) INDIAN MENTOR EDUCATION

14 GRANTS.—Institutions of higher education re15 ceiving grants under paragraph (1)(B)(v) shall

16 be eligible to receive grants to educate owners,

17 managers, or employees of established small

18 business concerns for purposes of providing ad19 ditional technical assistance to small business

20 concerns located on or near Indian lands that

21 are borrowers under this subsection, as well as

22 to other small business concerns seeking private

23 sector financing.’’.

24 (g) INDIAN ASSISTANCE.—Section 7(m) of the Small

25 Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(m)) is amended by inserting
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1 after paragraph (7), as added by subsection (f), the follow2 ing new paragraph:

3 ‘‘(8) INDIAN ASSISTANCE.—In funding

4 microloan programs, the Administration shall ensure

5 that not less than 10 percent of the programs fund6 ed under this subsection will provide microloans to

7 small business concerns located on or near Indian

8 lands.’’.

9 (h) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Section 7(m)(12)(F) of

10 the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(m)(12)(F)), as re11 designated by subsection (f), is amended by inserting ‘‘and

12 to small business concerns located on or near Indian

13 lands’’ immediately before the semicolon.

14 (i) DEFINITIONS.—Section 7(m)(13) of the Small

15 Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(m)(13)), as redesignated by

16 subsection (f), is amended—

17 (1) in subparagraph (C), by striking the period

18 at the end and inserting a semicolon; and

19 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub20 paragraphs:

21 ‘‘(D) the term ‘Indian lands’ has the same

22 meaning as in section 4(4) of the Indian Gam23 ing Regulatory Act;
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1 ‘‘(E) the term ‘Indian tribe’ has the same

2 meaning as in section 4(e) of the Indian Self3 Determination and Education Assistance Act;

4 ‘‘(F) the term ‘institution of higher edu5 cation’ has the same meaning as in section

6 1201(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965;

7 ‘‘(G) the term ‘mentor’ means a business

8 concern that demonstrates, to the satisfaction

9 of the Administration, the capability to assist

10 members of qualified Indian tribes to obtain

11 private sector financing for their businesses,

12 with or without loan guarantees; and

13 ‘‘(H) the term ‘qualified Indian tribe’

14 means an Indian tribe with—

15 ‘‘(i) an employable adult population of

16 not less than 400 persons; and

17 ‘‘(ii) an unemployment rate of not less

18 than 40 percent;

19 based on the statistics of the Bureau of Indian

20 Affairs, Department of the Interior.’’.

21 SEC. 2. IMPLEMENTATION.

22 Not later than 270 days after the date of enactment

23 of this Act, the Small Business Administration shall pro24 mulgate final regulations implementing the amendments

25 made by section 1.
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1 SEC. 3. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

2 Not later than 180 days after the effective date of

3 the regulations promulgated in accordance with section 2,

4 the Small Business Administration shall report to the

5 Congress regarding the effectiveness of the amendments

6 made by section 1 in improving the small business climate

7 and promoting business development on or near Indian

8 lands, as such term is defined in section 7(m)(13) of the

9 Small Business Act.

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