FAST Fix Act of 2021

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 802 To modify the Federal and State Technology Partnership Program of the Small Business Administration, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 17 (legislative day, MARCH 16), 2021 Mr. RISCH (for himself, Ms. CORTEZ MASTO, Mr. CRAPO, Mrs. CAPITO, Mr. HOEVEN, Ms. ROSEN, Mr. KENNEDY, and Ms. MURKOWSKI) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship A BILL To modify the Federal and State Technology Partnership Program of the Small Business Administration, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘FAST Fix Act of 4 2021’’. 5 SEC. 2. FEDERAL AND STATE TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIP 6 PROGRAM. 7 Section 34 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 8 657d) is amended— 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:22 Apr 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S802.IS S802 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 802 IS (1) in subsection (a), by adding at the end the 1 following: 2 ‘‘(11) UNDERPERFORMING STATE.—The term 3 ‘underperforming State’ means a State participating 4 in the SBIR or STTR program that has been cal- 5 culated by the Administrator to be one of 18 States 6 receiving the fewest SBIR and STTR Phase I 7 awards.’’; 8 (2) in subsection (c)— 9 (A) in paragraph (1)— 10 (i) in subparagraph (E)— 11 (I) in clause (iii), by striking 12 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 13 (II) in clause (iv), by striking the 14 period at the end and inserting ‘‘; 15 and’’; and 16 (III) by adding at the end the 17 following: 18 ‘‘(v) to prioritize applicants located in 19 an underperforming State.’’; 20 (B) in paragraph (2)(B)(vi)— 21 (i) in subclause (II), by striking 22 ‘‘and’’ at the end; and 23 (ii) by adding at the end the fol- 24 lowing: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:22 Apr 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S802.IS S802 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 802 IS ‘‘(IV) located in an underper- 1 forming State; and’’; 2 (C) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘Not 3 more than one proposal’’ and inserting ‘‘There 4 is no limit on the number of proposals that’’; 5 and 6 (D) by adding at the end the following: 7 ‘‘(6) ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE FOR UNDERPER- 8 FORMING STATES.—Upon application by a recipient 9 that is located in an underperforming State, the Ad- 10 ministrator may— 11 ‘‘(A) provide additional assistance to the 12 recipient; and 13 ‘‘(B) waive the matching requirements 14 under subsection (e)(2).’’; 15 (3) in subsection (e)— 16 (A) in paragraph (2)— 17 (i) in subparagraph (A)— 18 (I) by inserting ‘‘and STTR’’ be- 19 fore ‘‘first phase’’ each place that 20 term appears; 21 (II) in clause (i), by striking 22 ‘‘50’’ and inserting ‘‘25’’; 23 (III) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘1 24 dollar’’ and inserting ‘‘75 cents’’; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:22 Apr 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S802.IS S802 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 802 IS (IV) in clause (iii), by striking 1 ‘‘75’’ and inserting ‘‘50’’; 2 (ii) in subparagraph (D), by striking 3 ‘‘, beginning with fiscal year 2001’’ and in- 4 serting ‘‘and make publicly available on the 5 website of the Administration, beginning 6 with fiscal year 2022’’; and 7 (iii) by adding at the end the fol- 8 lowing: 9 ‘‘(E) PAYMENT.—The non-Federal share 10 of the cost of an activity carried out by a recipi- 11 ent may be paid by the recipient over the course 12 of the period of the award or cooperative agree- 13 ment.’’; and 14 (B) by adding at the end the following: 15 ‘‘(4) AMOUNT OF AWARD.—In carrying out the 16 FAST program under this section— 17 ‘‘(A) the Administrator shall make and 18 enter into awards or cooperative agreements; 19 ‘‘(B) each award or cooperative agreement 20 described in subparagraph (A) shall be for not 21 more than $500,000, which shall be provided 22 over 2 fiscal years; and 23 ‘‘(C) any amounts left unused in the third 24 quarter of the second fiscal year may be re- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:22 Apr 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S802.IS S802 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 802 IS tained by the Administrator for future FAST 1 program awards. 2 ‘‘(5) REPORTING.—Not later than 6 months 3 after receiving an award or entering into a coopera- 4 tive agreement under this section, a recipient shall 5 report to the Administrator— 6 ‘‘(A) the number of awards made under 7 the SBIR or STTR program; 8 ‘‘(B) the number of applications submitted 9 for the SBIR or STTR program; 10 ‘‘(C) the number of consulting hours spent; 11 ‘‘(D) the number of training events con- 12 ducted; and 13 ‘‘(E) any issues encountered in the man- 14 agement and application of the FAST pro- 15 gram.’’; 16 (4) in subsection (f)— 17 (A) in paragraph (1)— 18 (i) in the matter preceding subpara- 19 graph (A)— 20 (I) by striking ‘‘Small Business 21 Innovation Research Program Reau- 22 thorization Act of 2000’’ and insert- 23 ing ‘‘FAST Fix Act of 2021’’; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:22 Apr 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S802.IS S802 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 802 IS (II) by inserting ‘‘and Entrepre- 1 neurship’’ before ‘‘of the Senate’’; 2 (ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 3 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 4 (iii) in subparagraph (C), by striking 5 the period at the end and inserting ‘‘; 6 and’’; and 7 (iv) by adding at the end the fol- 8 lowing: 9 ‘‘(D) a description of the process used to 10 ensure that underperforming States are given 11 priority application status under the FAST pro- 12 gram.’’; and 13 (B) in paragraph (2)— 14 (i) in the paragraph heading, by strik- 15 ing ‘‘ANNUAL’’ and inserting ‘‘BIENNIAL’’; 16 (ii) in the matter preceding subpara- 17 graph (A), by striking ‘‘annual’’ and in- 18 serting ‘‘biennial’’; 19 (iii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 20 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 21 (iv) in subparagraph (C), by striking 22 the period at the end and inserting a semi- 23 colon; and 24 (v) by adding at the end the following: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:22 Apr 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S802.IS S802 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •S 802 IS ‘‘(D) the proportion of awards provided to 1 and cooperative agreements entered into with 2 underperforming States; and 3 ‘‘(E) a list of the States that were deter- 4 mined by the Administrator to be underper- 5 forming States, and a description of any 6 changes in the list compared to previously sub- 7 mitted reports.’’; 8 (5) in subsection (g)(2)— 9 (A) by striking ‘‘2004’’ and inserting 10 ‘‘2022’’; and 11 (B) by inserting ‘‘and Entrepreneurship’’ 12 before ‘‘of the Senate’’; and 13 (6) in subsection (h)(1), by striking 14 ‘‘$10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2001 through 15 2005’’ and inserting ‘‘$20,000,000 for every 2 fiscal 16 years between fiscal years 2022 through 2026, to be 17 obligated before the end of the second fiscal year’’. 18 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:22 Apr 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S802.IS S802 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS