IIB
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2538
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
DECEMBER 6, 2001
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business and
Entrepreneurship
AN ACT
To amend the Small Business Act to expand and improve
the assistance provided by Small Business Development
Centers to Indian tribe members, Alaska Natives, and
Native Hawaiians.
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 ‘‘Native American Small
Business Development Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(1) Approximately 60 percent of Indian tribe
members and Alaska Natives live on or adjacent to
Indian lands, which suffer from an average unem-
ployment rate of 45 percent.
(2) Indian tribe members and Alaska Natives
own more than 197,000 businesses and generate
more than $34,000,000,000 in revenues. The service
industry accounted for 17 percent of these busi-
nesses (of which 40 percent were engaged in busi-
ness and personal services) and 15.1 percent of their
total receipts. The next largest was the construction
industry (13.9 percent and 15.7 percent, respec-
tively). The third largest was the retail trade indus-
try (7.5 percent and 13.4 percent, respectively).
(3) The number of businesses owned by Indian
tribe members and Alaska Natives grew by 84 per-
cent from 1992 to 1997, and their gross receipts
grew by 179 percent in that period. This is com-
pared to all businesses which grew by 7 percent, and
their total gross receipts grew by 40 percent, in that
period.
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(4) The Small Business Development Center
program is cost effective. Clients receiving long-term
counseling under the program in 1998 generated ad-
ditional tax revenues of $468,000,000, roughly 6
times the cost of the program to the Federal Gov-
ernment.
(5) Using the existing infrastructure of the
Small Business Development Center program, small
businesses owned by Indian tribe members, Alaska
Natives, and Native Hawaiians receiving services
under the program will have a higher survival rate
than the average small business not receiving such
services.
(6) Business counseling and technical assist-
ance is critical on Indian lands where similar serv-
ices are scarce and expensive.
(7) Increased assistance through counseling
under the Small Business Development Center pro-
gram has been shown to reduce the default rate as-
sociated with lending programs of the Small Busi-
ness Administration.
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are as fol-
lows:
(1) To stimulate economies on Indian lands.
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(2) To foster economic development on Indian
lands.
(3) To assist in the creation of new small busi-
nesses owned by Indian tribe members, Alaska Na-
tives, and Native Hawaiians and expand existing
ones.
(4) To provide management, technical, and re-
search assistance to small businesses owned by In-
dian tribe members, Alaska Natives, and Native Ha-
waiians.
(5) To seek the advice of the governing bodies
of Indian tribes, corporations organized pursuant to
the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and other
Alaska Native entities, and Native Hawaiian organi-
zations on where small business development assist-
ance is most needed.
(6) To ensure that Indian tribe members, Alas-
ka Natives, and Native Hawaiians have full access
to existing business counseling and technical assist-
ance available through the Small Business Develop-
ment Center program.
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SEC. 3. SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER ASSIST-
ANCE TO INDIAN TRIBE MEMBERS, ALASKA
NATIVES, AND NATIVE HAWAIIANS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 21(a) of the Small Busi-
ness Act (15 U.S.C. 648(a)) is amended by adding at the
end the following:
‘‘(7) ADDITIONAL
GRANT
TO
ASSIST
INDIAN
TRIBE MEMBERS, ALASKA NATIVES, AND NATIVE HA-
WAIIANS.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Any applicant in an
eligible State that is funded by the Administra-
tion as a Small Business Development Center
may apply for an additional grant to be used
solely to provide services described in subsection
(c)(3) to assist with outreach, development, and
enhancement of small business startups and ex-
pansions that are owned by Indian tribe mem-
bers, Alaska Natives, or Native Hawaiians and
that are located in Alaska or Hawaii, or on In-
dian lands in the 48 contiguous States.
‘‘(B) ELIGIBLE STATES.—For purposes of
subparagraph (A), an eligible State is a State
that has a combined population of Indian tribe
members, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawai-
ians that comprises at least 1 percent of the
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State’s total population, as shown by the latest
available census.
‘‘(C) GRANT APPLICATIONS.—An applicant
for a grant under subparagraph (A) shall sub-
mit to the Associate Administrator an applica-
tion that is in such form as the Associate Ad-
ministrator may require. The application shall
include information regarding the applicant’s
goals and objectives for the services to be pro-
vided using the grant, including—
‘‘(i) the capability of the applicant to
provide training and services to a rep-
resentative number of Indian tribe mem-
bers, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawai-
ians;
‘‘(ii) the location of the Small Busi-
ness Development Center site proposed by
the applicant;
‘‘(iii) the required amount of grant
funding needed by the applicant to imple-
ment the program; and
‘‘(iv) the extent to which the applicant
has consulted with the governing bodies of
Indian tribes, corporations organized pur-
suant to the Alaska Native Claims Settle-
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ment Act and other Alaska Native entities,
and Native Hawaiian organizations, as ap-
propriate.
‘‘(D) APPLICABILITY OF GRANT REQUIRE-
MENTS.—An applicant for a grant under sub-
paragraph (A) shall comply with all of the re-
quirements of this section, except that the
matching funds requirements of paragraph
(4)(A) shall not apply.
‘‘(E) MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF GRANTS.—No
applicant may receive more than $300,000 in
grants under this paragraph in a fiscal year.
‘‘(F) REGULATIONS.—After providing no-
tice and an opportunity for comment and after
consulting with the Association recognized by
the Administration pursuant to paragraph
(3)(A) (but not later than 180 days after the
date of enactment of this paragraph), the Ad-
ministrator shall issue final regulations to carry
out this paragraph, including regulations that
establish—
‘‘(i) standards relating to educational,
technical, and support services to be pro-
vided by Small Business Development Cen-
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ters receiving assistance under this para-
graph; and
‘‘(ii) standards relating to any work
plan that the Associate Administrator may
require a Small Business Development
Center receiving assistance under this
paragraph to develop.
‘‘(G) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph,
the following definitions apply:
‘‘(i) ASSOCIATE
ADMINISTRATOR.—
The term ‘Associate Administrator’ means
the Associate Administrator for Small
Business Development Centers.
‘‘(ii) INDIAN LANDS.—The term ‘In-
dian lands’ means, in the 48 contiguous
States, land that is a ‘reservation’ for the
purposes of section 4 of the Indian Child
Welfare Act of 1978 (25 U.S.C. 1903) and
land that is an ‘Indian reservation’ for the
purposes of section 151.2 of title 25, Code
of Federal Regulations (as in effect on the
date of enactment of this paragraph).
‘‘(iii) INDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘In-
dian tribe’ means a federally recognized
Indian tribe.