[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1839 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1839

    To amend the Small Business Act to improve SCORE, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 1, 2009

 Mr. Buchanan introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Small Business

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Small Business Act to improve SCORE, 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. EXPANSION OF VOLUNTEER REPRESENTATION AND BENCHMARK REPORTS.

    (a) Expansion of Volunteer Representation.--Section 8(b)(1)(B) of 
the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 637(b)(1)(B)) is amended by inserting 
``(i)'' after ``(B)'' and by adding at the end the following:
            ``(ii) The Administrator shall ensure that SCORE, 
        established under this subparagraph, carries out a plan to 
        increase the proportion of mentors who are from socially or 
        economically disadvantaged backgrounds and, on an annual basis, 
        reports to the Administrator on the implementation of this 
        subparagraph.''.
    (b) Benchmark Reports.--Section 8(b)(1)(B) of the Small Business 
Act (15 U.S.C. 637(b)(1)(B)), as amended, is further amended by adding 
at the end the following:
            ``(iii) The Administrator shall ensure that SCORE, 
        established under this subparagraph, establishes benchmarks for 
        use in evaluating the performance of its activities and the 
        performance of its volunteers. The benchmarks shall include 
        benchmarks relating to the demographic characteristics and the 
        geographic characteristics of persons assisted by SCORE, 
        benchmarks relating to the hours spent mentoring by volunteers, 
        and benchmarks relating to the performance of the persons 
        assisted by SCORE. SCORE shall report, on an annual basis, to 
        the Administrator the extent to which the benchmarks 
        established under this clause are being attained.''.

SEC. 2. MENTORING AND NETWORKING.

    Section 8(b)(1)(B) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 
637(b)(1)(B)), as amended, is further amended by adding at the end the 
following:
            ``(iv) The Administrator shall ensure that SCORE, 
        established under this subparagraph, establishes a mentoring 
        program for small business concerns that provides one-on-one 
        advice to small business concerns from qualified counselors. 
        For purposes of this clause, qualified counselors are 
        counselors with at least 10 years experience in the industry 
        sector or area of responsibility of the small business concern 
        seeking advice.
            ``(v) The Administrator shall carry out a networking 
        program through SCORE, established under this subparagraph, 
        that provides small business concerns with the opportunity to 
        make business contacts in their industry or geographic 
        region.''.

SEC. 3. NAME OF PROGRAM CHANGED TO SCORE.

    (a) Name Change.--The Small Business Act is amended--
            (1) in section 8(b)(1)(B) (15 U.S.C. 637(b)(1)(B)), by 
        striking ``Executives (SCORE)'' and inserting ``Executives (in 
        this Act referred to as `SCORE')'';
            (2) in section 7(m)(3)(A)(i)(VIII) (15 U.S.C. 
        636(m)(3)(A)(i)(VIII)), by striking ``the Service Corps of 
        Retired Executives'' and inserting ``SCORE'';
            (3) in section 20 (15 U.S.C. 631 note)--
                    (A) in subsection (d)(1)(E), by striking ``the 
                Service Corps of Retired Executives program'' and 
                inserting ``SCORE''; and
                    (B) in subsection (e)(1)(E), by striking ``the 
                Service Corps of Retired Executives program'' and 
                inserting ``SCORE''; and
            (4) in section 33(b)(2) (15 U.S.C. 657c(b)(2), by striking 
        ``the Service Corps of Retired Executives program'' and 
        inserting ``SCORE''.
    (b) Elimination of ACE.--Section 8(b)(1)(B) of the Small Business 
Act (15 U.S.C. 637(b)(1)(B)), as amended, is further amended by 
striking ``and an Active Corps of Executive (ACE)''.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    Section 20 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 631 note) is 
amended by inserting the following new subsection after subsection (e):
    ``(f) Authorization of Appropriations for SCORE.--There is 
authorized to be appropriated $7,000,000 for SCORE under section 
8(b)(1) for each of the fiscal years 2010 and 2011.''.
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