FAST Fix Act of 2019

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2023 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 JUNE 27, 2019 Mr. RISCH (for himself, Mr. CRAPO, Mr. HOEVEN, Mrs. CAPITO, Ms. ROSEN, and Mr. KENNEDY) 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 2019’’. 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 22:27 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2023.IS S2023 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 2023 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)— 21 (i) in subparagraph (B)(vi), by 22 amending subclause (III) to read as fol- 23 lows: 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:27 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2023.IS S2023 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 2023 IS ‘‘(III) located in an underper- 1 forming State;’’; 2 (ii) in subparagraph (C), by striking 3 the period at the end and inserting ‘‘; 4 and’’; and 5 (iii) by adding at the end the fol- 6 lowing: 7 ‘‘(D) shall give first priority and special 8 consideration to an applicant that is located in 9 an underperforming State.’’; 10 (C) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘Not 11 more than one proposal’’ and inserting ‘‘There 12 is no limit on the number of proposals that’’; 13 and 14 (D) by adding at the end the following: 15 ‘‘(6) ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE FOR UNDERPER- 16 FORMING STATES.—Upon application by a recipient 17 that is located in an underperforming State, the Ad- 18 ministrator may— 19 ‘‘(A) provide additional assistance to the 20 recipient; and 21 ‘‘(B) waive the matching requirements 22 under subsection (e)(2).’’; 23 (3) in subsection (e)— 24 (A) in paragraph (2)— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:27 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2023.IS S2023 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 2023 IS (i) in subparagraph (A)— 1 (I) by inserting ‘‘and STTR’’ be- 2 fore ‘‘first phase’’ each place that 3 term appears; 4 (II) in clause (i), by striking 5 ‘‘50’’ and inserting ‘‘25’’; and 6 (III) in clause (iii), by striking 7 ‘‘75’’ and inserting ‘‘50’’; and 8 (ii) in subparagraph (D), by striking 9 ‘‘, beginning with fiscal year 2001’’ and in- 10 serting ‘‘and make publicly available on the 11 website of the Administration, beginning 12 with fiscal year 2020’’; and 13 (B) by adding at the end the following: 14 ‘‘(4) AMOUNT OF AWARD.—In carrying out the 15 FAST program under this section, the Adminis- 16 trator shall— 17 ‘‘(A) make and enter into not less than 12 18 awards or cooperative agreements; 19 ‘‘(B) each award or cooperative agreement 20 shall be for not more than $500,000, which 21 shall be provided over 2 fiscal years; and 22 ‘‘(C) any amounts left unused in the third 23 quarter of the second fiscal year may be re- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:27 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2023.IS S2023 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 2023 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 ‘‘Not later than 21 120 days after the date of the enact- 22 ment of the Small Business Innova- 23 tion Research Program Reauthoriza- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:27 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2023.IS S2023 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 2023 IS tion Act of 2000’’ and inserting 1 ‘‘April 30, 2020’’; and 2 (II) by inserting ‘‘and Entrepre- 3 neurship’’ before ‘‘of the Senate’’; 4 (ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 5 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 6 (iii) in subparagraph (C), by striking 7 the period at the end and inserting ‘‘; 8 and’’; and 9 (iv) by adding at the end the fol- 10 lowing: 11 ‘‘(D) a description of the process used to 12 ensure that underperforming States are given 13 priority application status under the FAST pro- 14 gram.’’; and 15 (B) in paragraph (2)— 16 (i) in the paragraph heading, by strik- 17 ing ‘‘ANNUAL’’ and inserting ‘‘BIENNIAL’’; 18 (ii) in the matter preceding subpara- 19 graph (A), by striking ‘‘annual’’ and in- 20 serting ‘‘biennial’’; 21 (iii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 22 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:27 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2023.IS S2023 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 2023 IS (iv) in subparagraph (C), by striking 1 the period at the end and inserting a semi- 2 colon; and 3 (v) by adding at the end the following: 4 ‘‘(D) the proportion of awards provided to 5 and cooperative agreements entered into with 6 underperforming States; and 7 ‘‘(E) a list of the States that were deter- 8 mined by the Administrator to be underper- 9 forming States, and a description of any 10 changes in the list compared to previously sub- 11 mitted reports.’’; 12 (5) in subsection (g)(2)— 13 (A) by striking ‘‘2004’’ and inserting 14 ‘‘2020’’; and 15 (B) by inserting ‘‘and Entrepreneurship’’ 16 before ‘‘of the Senate’’; and 17 (6) in subsection (h)(1), by striking 18 ‘‘$10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2001 through 19 2005’’ and inserting ‘‘$20,000,000 for every 2 fiscal 20 years between fiscal years 2020 through 2024, to be 21 obligated before the end of the second fiscal year’’. 22 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:27 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S2023.IS S2023 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS