I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4322 
To clarify the prohibition on affiliation under the Mentor-Protege Program 
of the Department of Defense, to amend the Small Business Act to 
improve cooperation between the mentor-protege programs of the Small 
Business Administration and the Department of Defense, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 6, 2016 
Mr. KNIGHT (for himself and Ms. JUDY CHU of California) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, and 
in addition to the Committee on Small Business, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To clarify the prohibition on affiliation under the Mentor- 
Protege Program of the Department of Defense, to 
amend the Small Business Act to improve cooperation 
between the mentor-protege programs of the Small Busi-
ness Administration and the Department of Defense, and 
for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Mentor-Prote´ge´ Co-
operation Reform Act of 2016’’. 
SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE MENTOR-PROTEGE PRO-
GRAM OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ON 
AFFILIATION. 
Section 831 of the National Defense Authorization 
Act for Fiscal Year 1991 (Public Law 101–510; 104 Stat. 
1607; 10 U.S.C. 2302 note) is amended— 
(1) in subsection (d)— 
(A) by amending paragraph (1) to read as 
follows: 
‘‘(1) prior to the approval of that agreement, 
the Administrator of the Small Business Administra-
tion had made no finding of affiliation between the 
mentor firm and the protege firm;’’; 
(B) by redesignating paragraph (2) as 
paragraph (3); and 
(C) by inserting after paragraph (1) the 
following new paragraph: 
‘‘(2)(A) the Administrator of the Small Busi-
ness Administration does not have a current finding 
of affiliation between the mentor firm and protege 
firm; or 
‘‘(B) the Secretary, after considering the regu-
lations promulgated by the Administrator of the 
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Small Business Administration regarding affili-
ation— 
‘‘(i) does not have reason to believe that 
the mentor firm affiliated with the protege firm; 
or 
‘‘(ii) has received a formal determination 
of no affiliation between the mentor firm and 
protege firm from the Administrator after hav-
ing submitted a question of affiliation to the 
Administrator; and’’; and 
(2) in subsection (n), by amending paragraph 
(9) to read as follows: 
‘‘(9) The term ‘affiliation’, with respect to a re-
lationship between a mentor firm and a protege 
firm, means a relationship described under section 
121.103 of title 13, Code of Federal Regulations (or 
any successor regulation).’’. 
SEC. 3. IMPROVING COOPERATION BETWEEN THE MENTOR- 
PROTEGE PROGRAMS OF THE SMALL BUSI-
NESS ADMINISTRATION AND THE DEPART-
MENT OF DEFENSE. 
Section 45(b)(4) of the Small Business Act (15 
U.S.C. 657r(b)(4)) is amended by striking subparagraph 
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(A) and redesignating subparagraphs (B) and (C) as sub-
paragraphs (A) and (B), respectively. 
Æ 
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