‘‘SEC. 46. PROGRAM TO PROVIDE FEDERAL CONTRACTS TO 
EARLY STAGE SMALL BUSINESSES. 
‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Administrator shall es-
tablish and carry out a program in accordance with the 
requirements of this section to provide improved access to 
Federal contract opportunities for early stage small busi-
ness concerns. 
‘‘(b) PROCUREMENT CONTRACTS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out subsection 
(a), the Administrator, in consultation with other 
Federal agencies, shall identify procurement con-
tracts of Federal agencies for award under the pro-
gram. 
‘‘(2) CONTRACT AWARDS.—Under the program 
established pursuant to this section, the award of a 
procurement contract of a Federal agency identified 
by the Administrator pursuant to paragraph (1) 
shall be made by the agency to an eligible program 
participant selected, and determined to be respon-
sible, by the agency. 
‘‘(3) COMPETITION.— 
‘‘(A) SOLE SOURCE.—A contracting officer 
may award a sole source contract under this 
program if such concern is determined to be a 
responsible contractor with respect to perform-
ance of such contract opportunity and the con-
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tracting officer does not have a reasonable ex-
pectation that 2 or more early stage small busi-
ness concerns will submit offers for the con-
tracting opportunity and in the estimation of 
the contracting officer, the contract award can 
be made at a fair and reasonable price. 
‘‘(B) RESTRICTED COMPETITION.—A con-
tracting officer may award contracts on the 
basis of competition restricted to early stage 
small business concerns if the contracting offi-
cer has a reasonable expectation that not less 
than 2 early stage small business concerns will 
submit offers and that the award can be made 
at a fair market price. 
‘‘(4) CONTRACT
VALUE.—Contracts shall be 
awarded under this program if its value is greater 
than $3,000 and less than half the upper threshold 
of Section 15(j)(1) of the Small Business Act. 
‘‘(c) ELIGIBILITY.—Only an early stage small busi-
ness concern shall be eligible to compete for a contract 
to be awarded under the program. The Administrator shall 
certify that a small business concern is an early stage 
small business concern, or the Administrator shall approve 
a Federal agency, a State government, or a national certi-
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fying entity to certify that the business meets the eligi-
bility criteria of an early stage small business concern. 
‘‘(d) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Administrator 
shall provide early stage small business concerns with 
technical assistance and counseling with regard to— 
‘‘(1) applying for and competing for Federal 
contracts; and 
‘‘(2) fulfilling the administrative responsibilities 
associated with the performance of a Federal con-
tract. 
‘‘(e) ATTAINMENT OF CONTRACT GOALS.—All con-
tract awards made under the program shall be counted 
toward the attainment of the goals specified in section 
15(g) of the Small Business Act. 
‘‘(f) REGULATIONS.—The Administrator shall— 
‘‘(1) issue proposed regulations to carry out 
this section not later than 180 days after the date 
of enactment of this Act; and 
‘‘(2) issue final regulations to carry out this 
section not later than 270 days after the date of en-
actment of this Act. 
‘‘(g) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than April 
30, 2015, the Administrator shall transmit to the Con-
gress a report on the performance of the program. 
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‘‘(h) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section, the 
following definitions shall apply: 
‘‘(1) PROGRAM.—The term ‘program’ means a 
program established pursuant to subsection (a). 
‘‘(2) EARLY
STAGE
SMALL
BUSINESS
CON-
CERN.—The term ‘early stage small business con-
cern’ means a small business concern that— 
‘‘(A) has not more than 15 employees; and 
‘‘(B) has average annual receipts that total 
not more than $1,000,000, except if the con-
cern is in an industry with an average annual 
revenue standard that is less than $1,000,000, 
as defined by the North American Industry 
Classification System.’’. 
Æ 
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