II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2045 To reauthorize the SBIR and STTR programs, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 27, 2019 Mrs. SHAHEEN (for herself, Mr. RUBIO, and Mr. CARDIN) introduced the fol- lowing bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship A BILL To reauthorize the SBIR and STTR programs, 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 ‘‘SBIR and STTR Per- 4 manency and Improvement Act of 2019’’. 5 SEC. 2. PERMANENCY OF SBIR AND STTR PROGRAMS. 6 (a) SBIR.—Section 9(m) of the Small Business Act 7 (15 U.S.C. 638(m)) is amended— 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:47 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2045.IS S2045 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 2045 IS (1) in the subsection heading, by striking 1 ‘‘TERMINATION’’ and inserting ‘‘SBIR PROGRAM 2 AUTHORIZATION’’; and 3 (2) by striking ‘‘terminate on September 30, 4 2022’’ and inserting ‘‘be in effect for each fiscal 5 year’’. 6 (b) STTR.—Section 9(n)(1)(A) of the Small Busi- 7 ness Act (15 U.S.C. 638(n)(1)(A)) is amended by striking 8 ‘‘through fiscal year 2022’’. 9 SEC. 3. ALLOCATION INCREASE. 10 (a) SBIR.—Section 9(f)(1) of the Small Business Act 11 (15 U.S.C. 638(f)) is amended— 12 (1) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), 13 by striking ‘‘expend’’ and inserting ‘‘obligate for ex- 14 penditure’’; 15 (2) in subparagraph (H), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 16 the end; 17 (3) in subparagraph (I), by striking ‘‘and each 18 fiscal year thereafter,’’ and inserting a semicolon; 19 and 20 (4) by inserting after subparagraph (I) the fol- 21 lowing: 22 ‘‘(J) not less than 3.5 percent of such 23 budget in fiscal year 2020; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:47 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2045.IS S2045 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 2045 IS ‘‘(K) not less than 4 percent of such budg- 1 et in fiscal year 2021; 2 ‘‘(L) not less than 5 percent of such budg- 3 et in fiscal year 2022; 4 ‘‘(M) not less than 6 percent of such budg- 5 et in fiscal year 2023; and 6 ‘‘(N) not less than 6.4 percent of such 7 budget in fiscal year 2024 and each fiscal year 8 thereafter.’’. 9 (b) STTR.—Section 9(n)(1) of the Small Business 10 Act (15 U.S.C. 638(n)(1)) is amended— 11 (1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘expend’’ 12 and inserting ‘‘obligate for expenditure’’; and 13 (2) in subparagraph (B)— 14 (A) in clause (iv), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 15 end; 16 (B) in clause (v), by striking ‘‘fiscal year 17 2016 and each fiscal year thereafter.’’ and in- 18 serting ‘‘fiscal year 2019;’’; and 19 (C) by adding at the end the following: 20 ‘‘(vi) 0.55 percent for fiscal year 21 2020; 22 ‘‘(vii) 0.65 percent for fiscal year 23 2021; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:47 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2045.IS S2045 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 2045 IS ‘‘(viii) 0.75 percent for fiscal year 1 2022; 2 ‘‘(ix) 0.85 percent for fiscal year 3 2023; and 4 ‘‘(x) 1 percent for fiscal year 2024 5 and each fiscal year thereafter.’’. 6 SEC. 4. ACCELERATING AWARD TIMELINES ACROSS AGEN- 7 CIES. 8 Section 9 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638) 9 is amended— 10 (1) in subsection (g)(8)— 11 (A) in subparagraph (B), by striking 12 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 13 (B) in subparagraph (C), by adding ‘‘and’’ 14 at the end; and 15 (C) by adding at the end the following: 16 ‘‘(D) the average and median amount of 17 time that each Federal agency with an SBIR 18 program takes to review and make a final deci- 19 sion on proposals submitted under the pro- 20 gram;’’; 21 (2) in subsection (o)(9)— 22 (A) in subparagraph (B), by striking 23 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:47 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2045.IS S2045 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 2045 IS (B) in subparagraph (C), by adding ‘‘and’’ 1 at the end; and 2 (C) by adding at the end the following: 3 ‘‘(D) the average and median amount of 4 time that each Federal agency with an STTR 5 program takes to review and make a final deci- 6 sion on proposals submitted under the pro- 7 gram;’’; 8 (3) in subsection (hh)— 9 (A) by adding at the end the following: 10 ‘‘(3) REQUIREMENT TO ACCELERATE ALL SBIR 11 AND STTR AWARDS.—Not later than 1 year after the 12 date of enactment of this paragraph, each Federal 13 agency participating in the SBIR program or STTR 14 program, other than the Department of Defense, 15 shall establish a program to reduce the time for 16 awards under the SBIR and STTR programs of the 17 Federal agency by— 18 ‘‘(A) developing simplified and standard- 19 ized procedures and model contracts throughout 20 the Federal agency for Phase I, Phase II, and 21 Phase III SBIR awards; 22 ‘‘(B) for Phase I SBIR and STTR awards, 23 reducing the amount of time between solicita- 24 tion closure and award; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:47 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2045.IS S2045 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •S 2045 IS ‘‘(C) for Phase II SBIR and STTR 1 awards, reducing the amount of time between 2 the end of a Phase I award and the start of the 3 Phase II award; 4 ‘‘(D) for Phase II SBIR and STTR 5 awards that skip Phase I, reducing the amount 6 of time between solicitation closure and award; 7 ‘‘(E) for sequential Phase II SBIR and 8 STTR awards, reducing the amount of time be- 9 tween Phase II awards; and 10 ‘‘(F) reducing the award times described in 11 subparagraphs (B), (C), (D), (E), and (F) to be 12 as close to 90 days as possible.’’; and 13 (4) in subsection (ii), by adding at the end the 14 following: 15 ‘‘(3) ADDITIONAL COMPTROLLER GENERAL RE- 16 PORTS.—The Comptroller General of the United 17 States shall submit to the Committee on Small Busi- 18 ness and Entrepreneurship of the Senate and the 19 Committee on Small Business of the House of Rep- 20 resentatives— 21 ‘‘(A) not later than 2 years after the date 22 of enactment of this paragraph, a report that— 23 ‘‘(i) provides the average and median 24 amount of time that each Federal agency 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:47 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2045.IS S2045 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •S 2045 IS with an SBIR or STTR program takes to 1 review and make a final decision on pro- 2 posals submitted under the program; and 3 ‘‘(ii) compares that average and me- 4 dian amount of time with that of the pre- 5 vious 5 fiscal years; and 6 ‘‘(B) not later than March 31, 2023, a re- 7 port that— 8 ‘‘(i) includes the information described 9 in subparagraph (A); 10 ‘‘(ii) assesses where each Federal 11 agency participating in the SBIR or STTR 12 program needs improvement with respect 13 to the proposal review and award times 14 under the program; 15 ‘‘(iii) identifies best practices for 16 shortening the proposal review and award 17 times under the SBIR and STTR pro- 18 grams; and 19 ‘‘(iv) analyzes the efficacy of the pro- 20 gram established under subsection 21 (hh)(3).’’. 22 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:47 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2045.IS S2045 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •S 2045 IS SEC. 5. ENCOURAGING VENTURE CAPITAL-OWNED PRO- 1 GRAM PARTICIPANTS. 2 Section 9(dd) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 3 638(dd)) is amended— 4 (1) by striking paragraph (1) and inserting the 5 following: 6 ‘‘(1) AUTHORITY.—The head of a Federal 7 agency that participates in the SBIR program— 8 ‘‘(A) may award not more than 25 percent 9 of the funds allocated for the SBIR program of 10 the Federal agency to small business concerns 11 that are owned in majority part by multiple 12 venture capital operating companies, hedge 13 funds, or private equity firms through competi- 14 tive, merit-based procedures that are open to all 15 eligible small business concerns; and 16 ‘‘(B) may not award any funds allocated 17 for the SBIR program of the Federal agency to 18 small business concerns owned by venture cap- 19 ital operating companies, hedge funds, or pri- 20 vate equity firms whose owners do not have 21 United States citizenship.’’; 22 (2) by striking paragraph (2); 23 (3) by redesignating paragraphs (3) through 24 (7) as paragraphs (2) through (6); and 25 (4) in paragraph (2), as so redesignated— 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:47 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2045.IS S2045 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 9 •S 2045 IS (A) in subparagraph (A), by striking 1 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 2 (B) in subparagraph (B), by striking the 3 period at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 4 (C) by adding at the end the following: 5 ‘‘(C) indicate if any of the venture capital 6 operating companies, hedge fund, or private eq- 7 uity firm owners of the small business concern 8 do not have United States citizenship.’’. 9 SEC. 6. PHASE III AWARD EDUCATION. 10 Section 9(r)(4) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 11 638(r)(4)) is amended— 12 (1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 13 the end; 14 (2) in subparagraph (B), by striking the period 15 at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 16 (3) by adding at the end the following: 17 ‘‘(C) train contracting officers in the exe- 18 cution of Phase III sole source award con- 19 tracts.’’. 20 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:47 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S2045.IS S2045 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS