[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1807 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1807

 To provide distance learning to potential and existing entrepreneurs, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 31, 2009

 Mr. Thompson of Pennsylvania introduced the following bill; which was 
              referred to the Committee on Small Business

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide distance learning to potential and existing entrepreneurs, 
                        and for other purposes.

    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 ``Educating Entrepreneurs through 
Today's Technology Act''.

SEC. 2. EDUCATING ENTREPRENEURS THROUGH TECHNOLOGY.

    The Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 631 et seq.) is amended by 
redesignating section 44 as section 45 and by inserting the following 
new section after section 43:

``SEC. 44. EDUCATING ENTREPRENEURS THROUGH TECHNOLOGY.

    ``(a) Purpose.--The purpose of this section is to provide high-
quality multilingual distance learning to potential and existing 
entrepreneurs through the use of technology.
    ``(b) Definition.--As used in this section, the term `qualified 
third-party vendor' means an entity with experience in distance 
learning content or communications technology, or both, with the 
ability to utilize on-line, satellite, video-on-demand, and connected 
community-based organizations to distribute and conduct distance 
learning related to entrepreneurship, credit management, financial 
literacy, and Federal small business development programs.
    ``(c) Authority.--The Administrator shall contract with qualified 
third-party vendors for entrepreneurial training content and the 
development of communications technology that can distribute content 
under this section throughout the United States. The Administrator 
shall contract with qualified third-party vendors to develop content in 
English and at least two other languages that are not English. For the 
purposes of this section, the Administrator shall designate the 
languages other than English by taking into account the general needs 
of the business community.
    ``(d) Content.--The Administrator shall ensure that the content 
referred to in subsection (c) is timely and relevant to entrepreneurial 
development and can be successfully communicated remotely to an 
audience through the use of technology. The Administrator shall, to the 
maximum extent practicable, promote content that makes use of 
technologies that allow for remote interaction by the content provider 
with an audience. The Administrator shall ensure that the content is 
catalogued and accessible to small businesses on-line or through other 
remote technologies.
    ``(e) Communications Technology.--The Administrator shall ensure 
that the communications technology referred to in subsection (c) is 
able to distribute content throughout all 50 States and the territories 
of the United States to small business concerns, home-based businesses, 
Small Business Development Centers, Women's Business Centers, Veterans 
Business Centers, and the Small Business Administration. To the extent 
possible, the qualified third-party vendor should deliver the content 
using broadband technology.
    ``(f) Reports to Congress.--The Administrator shall submit a report 
to Congress 6 months after the date of the enactment of this section 
containing an analysis of the Small Business Administration's progress 
in implementing this section. The Administrator shall submit a report 
to Congress one year after the date of the enactment of this section 
and annually thereafter containing the number of presentations made 
under this section, the number of small businesses served under this 
section, the extent to which this section resulted in the establishment 
of new businesses, and feedback on the usefulness of this medium in 
presenting entrepreneurial education throughout the United States.
    ``(g) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section $2,000,000 for each of the 
fiscal years 2010 and 2011.''.
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