II 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3896 

To amend the Small Business Act relating to small business concerns owned 

and controlled by women, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 22, 2022 

Ms. ERNST (for herself and Mrs. CAPITO) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship 

A BILL 

To amend the Small Business Act relating to small business 

concerns owned and controlled by women, 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 ‘‘Empowering Women 

5 in Small Business Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. TREATMENT OF FUNDING BY SMALL BUSINESS IN7 VESTMENT COMPANIES. 

8 Section 8 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 637) 

9 is amended— 


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1 (1) in subsection (a)(21)(E), by inserting ‘‘, 

2 and except as provided under subsection (m)(9),’’ 

3 after ‘‘law,’’; and 

4 (2) in subsection (m), by adding at the end the 

5 following: 

6 ‘‘(9) TREATMENT OF FUNDING BY SMALL BUSI7 NESS INVESTMENT COMPANIES.— 

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

9 term ‘covered small business concern’ means a 

10 small business concern— 

11 ‘‘(i)(I) owned and controlled by 

12 women; or 

13 ‘‘(II) owned and controlled by women 

14 described in paragraph (2)(A) and certified 

15 under paragraph (2)(E); and 

16 ‘‘(ii) that receives funding from a 

17 small business investment company li18 censed under title III of the Small Busi19 ness Investment Act of 1958 (15 U.S.C. 

20 681 et seq.). 

21 ‘‘(B) RETAINED CERTIFICATION.—Any 

22 covered small business concern shall retain cer23 tification as a covered small business concern 

24 under this subsection for a period of not more 

25 than 7 years if, during that period, ownership 


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1 interests in the covered small business concern 

2 that are held by a small business investment 

3 company licensed under title III of the Small 

4 Business Investment Act of 1958 (15 U.S.C. 

5 681 et seq.) would reduce the percentage re6 quired under section 3(n) or paragraph (2)(A) 

7 of this subsection, as applicable, to less than 51 

8 percent.’’. 

9 SEC. 3. REQUIRED TRAINING AND REPORTING ON GOVERN10 MENTWIDE GOALS. 

11 Section 15(g)(2) of the Small Business Act (15 

12 U.S.C. 644(g)(2)) is amended by adding at the end the 

13 following: 

14 ‘‘(G) REQUIRED TRAINING.— 

15 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding the 

16 goals established under this subsection for each 

17 Federal agency, the Administration, in con18 sultation with the National Women’s Business 

19 Council established under section 405 of the 

20 Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988 (15 

21 U.S.C. 7105), shall provide training to employ22 ees with responsibility for procurement or ac23 quisition at any Federal agency that awards 

24 less than 5 percent of prime contracts and subVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:01 Mar 23, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3896.IS S3896

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1 contracts to small business concerns owned and 

2 controlled by women in a fiscal year. 

3 ‘‘(ii) GUIDANCE.—The Administration 

4 shall issue publicly available guidance for each 

5 Federal agency identified in a report submitted 

6 under clause (iii) to meet the 5 percent goal de7 scribed in clause (iii)(I). 

8 ‘‘(iii) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year 

9 after the date of enactment of this Act, and an10 nually thereafter, the Administration shall sub11 mit to Congress— 

12 ‘‘(I) a list of each Federal agency that 

13 awarded less than 5 percent of the prime 

14 contracts and subcontracts of the Federal 

15 agency to small business concerns owned 

16 and controlled by women in the fiscal year 

17 covered by the report; 

18 ‘‘(II) the number of training sessions 

19 provided under clause (i) to each Federal 

20 agency described in subclause (I); 

21 ‘‘(III) an overview of the content of 

22 each training session described in sub23 clause (II); and 

24 ‘‘(IV) the result of each training ses25 sion described in subclause (II), including 


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1 whether additional contracting opportuni2 ties were provided to small business con3 cerns owned and controlled by women and 

4 the 5 percent threshold described in clause 

5 (i) was met by the Federal agency.’’. 

6 SEC. 4. INTERAGENCY REPORT. 

7 (a) DEFINITION.—In this section— 

8 (1) the term ‘‘covered agency’’ means— 

9 (A) the Department of Commerce; 

10 (B) the Small Business Administration; 

11 (C) the Department of Agriculture; and 

12 (D) the Department of the Treasury; 

13 (2) the term ‘‘covered small business concern’’ 

14 means— 

15 (A) a small business concern owned and 

16 controlled by women; and 

17 (B) a small business concern owned and 

18 controlled by women described in and certified 

19 under subparagraphs (A) and (E), respectively, 

20 of section 8(m)(2) of the Small Business Act 

21 (15 U.S.C. 638(m)(2)); and 

22 (3) the term ‘‘small business concern owned 

23 and controlled by women’’ has the meaning given the 

24 term in section 3 of the Small Business Act (15 

25 U.S.C. 632). 


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1 (b) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 

2 of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Commerce, in 

3 consultation with the Administrator of the Small Business 

4 Administration, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Sec5 retary of the Treasury, shall submit to Congress an inter6 agency report that— 

7 (1) identifies the leading economic barriers for 

8 small business concerns owned and controlled by 

9 women, particularly for industries underrepresented 

10 by small business concerns owned and controlled by 

11 women; 

12 (2) includes a detailed description of the impact 

13 of inflation and supply chain disruptions on small 

14 business concerns owned and controlled by women 

15 during the 3-year period preceding the report; 

16 (3) makes recommendations to improve access 

17 to capital for small business concerns owned and 

18 controlled by women; and 

19 (4) in consultation with the Office of Small 

20 Business and Disadvantaged Business Utilization of 

21 each covered agency, identifies Federal contract op22 portunities for covered small business concerns. 

Æ 


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