Empowering Women in Small Business Act

Bill: 117-s-3896
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Ernst, Joni [R-IA]
Introduced: 2022-03-22
Policy area: Commerce
Latest action: action_date: 2022-03-22
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Summaries:
action_date: 2022-03-22
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><b>Empowering Women in Small Business Act</b></p> <p>This bill permits certain women-owned small businesses to retain for seven years their certification under the Small Business Administration's Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contracting program even if the ownership interests in the small business are held by a licensed small business investment company that would otherwise reduce the ownership percentage below the threshold required for participation in the WOSB program.</p>

tv_txt: II 117th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 3896 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES March 22, 2022 Ms. Ernst (for herself and Mrs. Capito ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship A BILL To amend the Small Business Act relating to small business concerns owned and controlled by women, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Empowering Women in Small Business Act . 2. Treatment of funding by small business investment companies Section 8 of the Small Business Act ( 15 U.S.C. 637 ) is amended— (1) in subsection (a)(21)(E), by inserting , and except as provided under subsection (m)(9), after law, ; and (2) in subsection (m), by adding at the end the following: (9) Treatment of funding by small business investment companies (A) Definition In this paragraph, the term covered small business concern means a small business concern— (i) (I) owned and controlled by women; or (II) owned and controlled by women described in paragraph (2)(A) and certified under paragraph (2)(E); and (ii) that receives funding from a small business investment company licensed under title III of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 ( 15 U.S.C. 681 et seq. ). (B) Retained certification Any covered small business concern shall retain certification as a covered small business concern under this subsection for a period of not more than 7 years if, during that period, ownership interests in the covered small business concern that are held by a small business investment company licensed under title III of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 ( 15 U.S.C. 681 et seq. ) would reduce the percentage required under section 3(n) or paragraph (2)(A) of this subsection, as applicable, to less than 51 percent. . 3. Required training and reporting on Governmentwide goals Section 15(g)(2) of the Small Business Act ( 15 U.S.C. 644(g)(2) ) is amended by adding at the end the following: (G) Required training (i) In general Notwithstanding the goals established under this subsection for each Federal agency, the Administration, in consultation with the National Women's Business Council established under section 405 of the Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988 ( 15 U.S.C. 7105 ), shall provide training to employees with responsibility for procurement or acquisition at any Federal agency that awards less than 5 percent of prime contracts and subcontracts to small business concerns owned and controlled by women in a fiscal year. (ii) Guidance The Administration shall issue publicly available guidance for each Federal agency identified in a report submitted under clause (iii) to meet the 5 percent goal described in clause (iii)(I). (iii) Report Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Administration shall submit to Congress— (I) a list of each Federal agency that awarded less than 5 percent of the prime contracts and subcontracts of the Federal agency to small business concerns owned and controlled by women in the fiscal year covered by the report; (II) the number of training sessions provided under clause (i) to each Federal agency described in subclause (I); (III) an overview of the content of each training session described in subclause (II); and (IV) the result of each training session described in subclause (II), including whether additional contracting opportunities were provided to small business concerns owned and controlled by women and the 5 percent threshold described in clause (i) was met by the Federal agency. . 4. Interagency report (a) Definition In this section— (1) the term covered agency means— (A) the Department of Commerce; (B) the Small Business Administration; (C) the Department of Agriculture; and (D) the Department of the Treasury; (2) the term covered small business concern means— (A) a small business concern owned and controlled by women; and (B) a small business concern owned and controlled by women described in and certified under subparagraphs (A) and (E), respectively, of section 8(m)(2) of the Small Business Act ( 15 U.S.C. 638(m)(2) ); and (3) the term small business concern owned and controlled by women has the meaning given the term in section 3 of the Small Business Act ( 15 U.S.C. 632 ). (b) Report Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Administrator of the Small Business Administration, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Secretary of the Treasury, shall submit to Congress an interagency report that— (1) identifies the leading economic barriers for small business concerns owned and controlled by women, particularly for industries underrepresented by small business concerns owned and controlled by women; (2) includes a detailed description of the impact of inflation and supply chain disruptions on small business concerns owned and controlled by women during the 3-year period preceding the report; (3) makes recommendations to improve access to capital for small business concerns owned and controlled by women; and (4) in consultation with the Office of Small Business and Disadvantaged Business Utilization of each covered agency, identifies Federal contract opportunities for covered small business concerns.