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[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3699 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3699

  To direct the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to 
reform and improve the HUBZone program for small business concerns, and 
                          for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 19, 2008

   Ms. Snowe introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
    referred to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
  To direct the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to 
reform and improve the HUBZone program for small business concerns, 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. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``HUBZone Improvement Act of 2008''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act--
            (1) the terms ``Administration'' and ``Administrator'' mean 
        the Small Business Administration and the Administrator 
        thereof, respectively;
            (2) the terms ``HUBZone'' and ``HUBZone small business 
        concern'' have the meanings given such terms in section 3 of 
        the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632); and
            (3) the term ``recertification'' means determining whether 
        a business concern that was previously determined to be a 
        qualified HUBZone small business concern is a qualified HUBZone 
        small business concern under section 3(p)(5) of the Small 
        Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632(p)(5)).

SEC. 3. PURPOSE; FINDINGS.

    (a) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to reform and improve the 
HUBZone program of the Administration.
    (b) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) The HUBZone program was established under the HUBZone 
        Act of 1997 (Public Law 105-135; 111 Stat. 2627) to stimulate 
        economic development through increased employment and capital 
        investment by providing Federal contracting preferences to 
        small business concerns in economically distressed communities 
        or HUBZone areas.
            (2) According to the Government Accountability Office--
                    (A) as of February 2008, 12,986 certified firms 
                have participated in the HUBZone program since its 
                inception; and
                    (B) in fiscal year 2007, over 4,200 HUBZone small 
                business concerns obtained approximately $8,100,000,000 
                in Federal contracts.
            (3) The Government Accountability Office also identified 
        numerous concerns with the HUBZone program, including that--
                    (A) the Administration verifies the information 
                received by the Administration from HUBZone small 
                business concerns in limited instances and has limited 
                assurances that only eligible firms participated in the 
                HUBZone program;
                    (B) by not obtaining documentation and conducting 
                site visits on a more routine basis during the 
                certification process, the Administration cannot be 
                sure that only eligible firms are part of the HUBZone 
                program; and
                    (C) although the examination process of the 
                Administration involves a more extensive review of 
                documentation, the examination process cannot be relied 
                upon to ensure that only eligible firms participate in 
                the HUBZone program because the examination process 
                involves only 5 percent of firms in any given year.

SEC. 4. HUBZONE IMPROVEMENTS.

    The Administrator shall--
            (1) as soon as is practicable, correct and update the map 
        that is used by the Administration to identify HUBZones and 
        implement procedures to ensure that the map is updated with the 
        most recently available data on a more frequent basis;
            (2) develop and implement guidance for determining whether 
        an applicant is a qualified HUBZone small business concern 
        under section 3(p)(5) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 
        632(p)(5)), including more routinely and consistently obtaining 
        supporting documentation from an applicant and conducting more 
        frequent site visits, as appropriate;
            (3) establish a date by which the Administrator shall 
        eliminate the backlog of applications for recertification;
            (4) ensure that the Administration eliminates the backlog 
        described in paragraph (3) by the date established under 
        paragraph (3), using officers and employees of the 
        Administration or by entering into a contract with a private 
        entity;
            (5) establish and implement a time period for completing a 
        recertification; and
            (6) develop measures and implement plans to assess the 
        effectiveness of the HUBZone program that take into account--
                    (A) the economic characteristics of the HUBZone; 
                and
                    (B) contracts being counted under multiple 
                socioeconomic subcategories.

SEC. 5. REPORT.

    Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to the Committee 
on Small Business and Entrepreneurship of the Senate and the Committee 
on Small Business of the House of Representatives a report regarding 
the implementation of this Act.
                                 <all>
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