I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2499 
To amend the Small Business Act to expand and improve the assistance 
provided by Small Business Development Centers to Colonias. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 24, 2007 
Mr. CUELLAR (for himself, Mr. REYES, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. GONZALEZ, Ms. 
CLARKE, Mr. HINOJOSA, Mr. JEFFERSON, Mr. ORTIZ, Mr. FARR, Mr. 
THOMPSON of California, Mr. RODRIGUEZ, and Mr. BRADY of Texas) in-
troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Small 
Business 
A BILL 
To amend the Small Business Act to expand and improve 
the assistance provided by Small Business Development 
Centers to Colonias. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘SBDC Colonias Out-
reach Act of 2007’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Colonias are found in Texas, New Mexico, 
Arizona and California and are composed of families 
with very low incomes and usually lack basic services 
such as clean and abundant water, roads, sewer sys-
tems, schools, and law enforcement. 
(2) Across the Southwest there are approxi-
mately 3,000 Colonias with nearly three quarters of 
a million people living in these communities. 
(3) Improving the living situation within 
Colonias is not limited to fixing basic infrastructure 
but must also include spurring economic growth. 
(4) Studies have found that the unemployment 
rate in Colonias was upwards of 60 percent. 
(5) The average yearly salary of people living in 
these communities is less than $10,000, well below 
the Nation’s poverty line. 
(6) Many Colonias residents cannot find year- 
round work due to the seasonal nature of their pri-
mary occupations—fieldwork represents 29.5 percent 
of their jobs, construction work 24.4 percent, and 
factory work, 14.9 percent. 
(7) The Small Business Development Center 
program has been proven to be a cost effective solu-
tion to providing the resources and technical assist-
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ance needed to grow existing businesses and to start 
new enterprises. 
(8) Business counseling and technical assist-
ance is critical in Colonias where similar services are 
in short supply and are costly. 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are the fol-
lowing: 
(1) To stimulate economic development in 
Colonias. 
(2) To assist in the creation of new small busi-
nesses located in Colonias and expand existing ones. 
(3) To provide management, technical, and re-
search assistance to entrepreneurs located in 
Colonias. 
(4) To ensure that residents of Colonias have 
full access to existing business counseling and tech-
nical assistance available through the Small Busi-
ness Development Center program. 
SEC. 3. SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER ASSIST-
ANCE TO COLONIAS. 
Section 21(a) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 
648(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(8) ADDITIONAL GRANT TO ASSIST INDIVID-
UALS RESIDING IN COLONIAS.— 
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