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[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3020 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3020

  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

                           February 23, 2010

   Ms. Snowe (for herself, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Bond, and Mr. Merkley) 
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 2010''.

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'' and ``HUBZone map'' have the meanings given those 
        terms in section 3(p) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 
        632(p)), as amended by this Act; and
            (3) the term ``recertification'' means a determination by 
        the Administrator that 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 that--
            (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 those areas, including inner cities 
        and rural counties, that have low household incomes, high 
        unemployment, and suffered from a lack of investment; and
            (2) according to the Government Accountability Office, the 
        weakness in the oversight of the HUBZone program by the 
        Administration has exposed the Government to fraud and abuse.

SEC. 4. HUBZONE IMPROVEMENTS.

    The Administrator shall--
            (1) ensure the HUBZone map--
                    (A) is accurate and up-to-date; and
                    (B) revised as new data is made available to 
                maintain the accuracy and currency of the HUBZone map;
            (2) implement policies for ensuring that only HUBZone small 
        business concerns determined to be qualified under section 
        3(p)(5) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632(p)(5)) are 
        participating in the HUBZone program, including through the 
        appropriate use of technology to control costs and maximize, 
        among other benefits, uniformity, completeness, simplicity, and 
        efficiency;
            (3) 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 any 
        application to be designated as a HUBZone small business 
        concern or for recertification for which the Administrator has 
        not made a determination as of the date that is 60 days after 
        the date on which the application was submitted or initiated, 
        which shall include a plan and timetable for ensuring the 
        timely processing of the applications; and
            (4) develop measures and implement plans to assess the 
        effectiveness of the HUBZone program that--
                    (A) require the identification of a baseline point 
                in time to allow the assessment of economic development 
                under the HUBZone program, including creating 
                additional jobs; and
                    (B) take into account--
                            (i) the economic characteristics of the 
                        HUBZone; and
                            (ii) contracts being counted under multiple 
                        socioeconomic subcategories.

SEC. 5. EMPLOYMENT PERCENTAGE.

    Section 3(p) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632(p)) is 
amended--
            (1) in paragraph (5), by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(E) Employment percentage during interim 
                period.--
                            ``(i) Definition.--In this subparagraph, 
                        the term `interim period' means the period 
                        beginning on the date on which the 
                        Administrator determines that a HUBZone small 
                        business concern is qualified under 
                        subparagraph (A) and ending on the day before 
                        the date on which a contract under the HUBZone 
                        program for which the HUBZone small business 
                        concern submits a bid is awarded.
                            ``(ii) Interim period.--During the interim 
                        period, the Administrator may not determine 
                        that the HUBZone small business is not 
                        qualified under subparagraph (A) based on a 
                        failure to meet the applicable employment 
                        percentage under subparagraph (A)(i)(I), unless 
                        the HUBZone small business concern--
                                    ``(I) has not attempted to maintain 
                                the applicable employment percentage 
                                under subparagraph (A)(i)(I); or
                                    ``(II) does not meet the applicable 
                                employment percentage--
                                            ``(aa) on the date on which 
                                        the HUBZone small business 
                                        concern submits a bid for a 
                                        contract under the HUBZone 
                                        program; or
                                            ``(bb) on the date on which 
                                        the HUBZone small business 
                                        concern is awarded a contract 
                                        under the HUBZone program.''; 
                                        and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(8) HUBZone program.--The term `HUBZone program' means 
        the program established under section 31.
            ``(9) HUBZone map.--The term `HUBZone map' means the map 
        used by the Administration to identify HUBZones.''.

SEC. 6. REDESIGNATED AREAS.

    Section 3(p)(4)(C)(i) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 
632(p)(4)(C)(i)) is amended to read as follows:
                            ``(i) 3 years after the first date on which 
                        the Administrator publishes a HUBZone map that 
                        is based on the results from the 2010 decennial 
                        census; or''.
                                 <all>
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