I 112th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 6237 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 31, 2012 Mr. Braley of Iowa introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Small Business A BILL To amend the Small Business Act to provide for grants to small business development centers, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Main Street Stabilization Act of 2012.

2.

In general

Section 21 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 648), is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection: (o)

Main street stabilization

(1)

In general

The Administration shall establish a grant program for small business development centers in accordance with this subsection. To be eligible for the program, a small business development center must be in good standing and comply with the other requirements of this section. Funds made available through the program shall be used to— (A)develop business advisory capacity to provide expert consulting and education to assist small businesses and to, in areas of high demand, shorten the response time of small business development centers, and, in rural areas, support added outreach in remote communities; (B)develop a portfolio of online survival and growth tools and resources that struggling small business concerns can utilize through the Internet; (C)deploy additional resources to help specific industry sectors with a high presence of small business concerns, which shall be targeted toward clusters of small businesses with similar needs and build upon best practices from earlier assistance; and (D)develop a formal listing of financing options for small business capital access. (2)

Award size limit

The Administration may not award an entity more than $250,000 in grant funds under this subsection. (3)

Authority

Subject to amounts approved in advance in appropriations Acts and separate from amounts approved to carry out the program established in subsection (a)(1), the Administration may make grants or enter into cooperative agreements to carry out this subsection. (4)

Authorization

There is authorized to be appropriated not more than $2,500,000 for the purposes of carrying out this subsection for each of the fiscal years 2013 and 2014. .