[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2608 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2608

            To make improvements to the Small Business Act.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

             February 7 (legislative day, February 6), 2008

 Ms. Snowe (for herself and Mrs. Dole) introduced the following bill; 
 which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business 
                          and Entrepreneurship

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
            To make improvements to the Small Business Act.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Small Business Women's Procurement 
Program Improvement Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds--
            (1) based on evidence presented by Congressional witnesses, 
        testimony before Congress, and studies and reports, that women-
        owned small business concerns are under represented in certain 
        identified industries with respect to Federal procurement 
        contracting; and
            (2) the women's small business government-wide statutory 
        goal has never been achieved since the time of its enactment.

SEC. 3. SMALL BUSINESS ACT PROGRAM IMPROVEMENTS.

    Section 8(m) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 637(m)) is 
amended--
            (1) in paragraph (2)(C), by striking ``(3)'' and inserting 
        ``(4)'';
            (2) in paragraph (2), by striking subparagraph (D) and 
        inserting the following:
                    ``(D) the contract is consistent with the 
                requirements set forth in subsection (a)(1)(D)(i);'';
            (3) by striking paragraph (4) and inserting the following:
            ``(4) Identification of industries.--
                    ``(A) Study required.--The Administrator shall 
                conduct a study 5 years after the date on which the 
                program under this section is implemented, to identify 
                industries in which small business concerns owned and 
                controlled by women are underrepresented with respect 
                to Federal procurement contracting.
                    ``(B) Presumption relating to 
                underrepresentation.--For purposes of this subsection, 
                the industries identified by the 2007 North American 
                Industry Classification System Code as industry codes 
                11 through 81 (as published by the Bureau of the 
                Census) shall be presumed to be industries in which 
                small business concerns owned and controlled by women 
                are underrepresented with respect to Federal 
                procurement contracting.''; and
            (4) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(7) No past finding of discrimination required.--
        Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a contracting 
        officer need not make a finding of past gender discrimination 
        by a contracting agency in order to comply with or otherwise be 
        subject to the requirements of this subsection.''.
                                 <all>