IIB 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5146 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
JANUARY 9, 2020 
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business and 
Entrepreneurship 
AN ACT 
To amend the Small Business Act to require contracting 
officers to take a small business concern’s past perform-
ance as part of a joint venture into account when evalu-
ating the small business concern, 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 ‘‘Unlocking Opportuni-
ties for Small Businesses Act of 2019’’. 
SEC. 2. PAST PERFORMANCE RATINGS OF JOINT VEN-
TURES FOR SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS. 
Section 15(e) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 
644(e)) is amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(5) PAST PERFORMANCE RATINGS OF JOINT 
VENTURES FOR SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS.—With 
respect to evaluating an offer for a prime contract 
made by a small business concern that previously 
participated in a joint venture with another business 
concern (whether or not such other business concern 
was itself a small business concern), the Adminis-
trator shall establish regulations— 
‘‘(A) requiring contracting officers to con-
sider the record of past performance of the 
joint venture when evaluating the past perform-
ance of the small business concern; and 
‘‘(B) requiring the small business concern 
to inform the contracting officer what duties 
and responsibilities the small business concern 
carried out as part of the joint venture.’’. 
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SEC. 3. PAST PERFORMANCE RATINGS OF FIRST-TIER 
SMALL BUSINESS SUBCONTRACTORS. 
Section 8(d)(17) of the Small Business Act (15 
U.S.C. 637(d)(17)) is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(17) PAST PERFORMANCE RATINGS FOR CER-
TAIN SMALL BUSINESS SUBCONTRACTORS.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—Upon request by a 
small business concern that performed as a first 
tier subcontractor on a covered contract (as de-
fined in paragraph 13(A)) that is submitting an 
offer for a solicitation, the prime contractor for 
such covered contract shall submit to the con-
tracting agency issuing the solicitation or to 
such small business concern a record of past 
performance for such small business concern 
with respect to such covered contract. 
‘‘(B) CONSIDERATION.—A contracting offi-
cer shall consider the record of past perform-
ance of a small business concern provided under 
subparagraph (A) when evaluating an offer for 
a prime contract made by such small business 
concern.’’. 
SEC. 4. RULEMAKING. 
(a) SBA RULES.—Not later than the end of the 120- 
day period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act, 
the Administrator of the Small Business Administration 
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shall issue rules to carry out this Act and the amendments 
made by this Act. 
(b) FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION.—Not later 
than the end of the 120-day period beginning on the date 
that rules are issued under subsection (a), the Federal Ac-
quisition Regulation shall be revised to reflect such rules. 
SEC. 5. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS. 
The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of 
complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, 
shall be determined by reference to the latest statement 
titled ‘‘Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation’’ for this 
Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional Record 
by the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, pro-
vided that such statement has been submitted prior to the 
vote on passage. 
Passed the House of Representatives January 8, 
2020. 
Attest: 
CHERYL L. JOHNSON, 
Clerk. 
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