II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1981 To modify the unconditional ownership requirement for women-owned and minority-owned small business concerns for purposes of procurement contracts with the Small Business Administration, and for other pur- poses. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 28, 2019 Ms. CANTWELL (for herself and Mr. RUBIO) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship A BILL To modify the unconditional ownership requirement for women-owned and minority-owned small business con- cerns for purposes of procurement contracts with 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 ‘‘Women and Minority 4 Equity Investment Act of 2019’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:40 Jul 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1981.IS S1981 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 1981 IS SEC. 2. MODIFYING UNCONDITIONAL OWNERSHIP RE- 1 QUIREMENT FOR WOMEN-OWNED AND MI- 2 NORITY-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CON- 3 CERNS. 4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 8 of the Small Business 5 Act (15 U.S.C. 637) is amended— 6 (1) in subsection (a)(4)— 7 (A) in subparagraph (A), in the matter 8 preceding clause (i), by striking ‘‘For purposes’’ 9 and inserting ‘‘Except as provided in subpara- 10 graph (C), for purposes’’; 11 (B) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as 12 subparagraph (D); and 13 (C) by inserting after subparagraph (B) 14 the following: 15 ‘‘(C) For purposes of determining eligibility for 16 an award under this subsection, the term ‘socially 17 and economically disadvantaged small concern’ in- 18 cludes any small business concern that meets the re- 19 quirements of subparagraph (B) and— 20 ‘‘(i) for which less than 51 percent is un- 21 conditionally owned by 1 or more socially and 22 economically disadvantaged individuals or by an 23 entity described in subclause (II) or (III) of 24 subparagraph (A)(i) because the small business 25 concern— 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:40 Jul 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1981.IS S1981 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 1981 IS ‘‘(I) is not more than 50 percent 1 owned and controlled by 1 or more equity 2 investment or venture capital firms; or 3 ‘‘(II) is not less than 51 percent 4 owned and controlled by 1 or more equity 5 investment or venture capital firms owned 6 by 1 or more socially disadvantaged indi- 7 viduals or by an entity described in sub- 8 clause (II) or (III) of subparagraph (A)(i); 9 or 10 ‘‘(ii) in the case of any publicly owned 11 business, for which less than 51 percent of the 12 stock is unconditionally owned by 1 or more so- 13 cially and economically disadvantaged individ- 14 uals or by an entity described in subclause (II) 15 or (III) of subparagraph (A)(ii) because the 16 small business concern— 17 ‘‘(I) is not more than 50 percent 18 owned and controlled by 1 or more equity 19 investment or venture capital firms; or 20 ‘‘(II) is not less than 51 percent 21 owned and controlled by 1 or more equity 22 investment or venture capital firms owned 23 by 1 or more socially disadvantaged indi- 24 viduals or by an entity described in sub- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:40 Jul 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1981.IS S1981 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 1981 IS clause (II) or (III) of subparagraph 1 (A)(ii);’’; and 2 (2) in subsection (m)(1), by striking subpara- 3 graph (B) and inserting the following: 4 ‘‘(B) SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN OWNED 5 AND CONTROLLED BY WOMEN.— 6 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘small 7 business concern owned and controlled by 8 women’— 9 ‘‘(I) has the meaning given the 10 term in section 3(n); and 11 ‘‘(II) includes a small business 12 concern described in subclause (I) for 13 which less than 51 percent is uncondi- 14 tionally owned by 1 or more women 15 because the small business concern— 16 ‘‘(aa) is not more than 50 17 percent owned and controlled by 18 1 or more equity investment or 19 venture capital firms; or 20 ‘‘(bb) is not less than 51 21 percent owned and controlled by 22 1 or more equity investment or 23 venture capital firms owned by 24 women. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:40 Jul 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1981.IS S1981 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 1981 IS ‘‘(ii) OWNERSHIP.—For purposes of 1 clause (i), ownership shall be determined 2 without regard to any community property 3 law.’’. 4 (b) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 1 year after the 5 date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the 6 Small Business Administration shall promulgate regula- 7 tions to amend parts 124 and 127 of chapter I of title 8 13, Code of Federal Regulations, to carry out the amend- 9 ments made by subsection (a). 10 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:40 Jul 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1981.IS S1981 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS