[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 113 (Tuesday, July 9, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4299-S4300]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 2099. Ms. ERNST submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by 
her to the bill S. 4638, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 
2025 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the appropriate place, insert the following:

     SEC. ___. PILOT PROGRAM FOR SMALL BUSINESSES TO SCALE 
                   TECHNOLOGIES.

       (a) Pilot Program for Small Businesses to Scale 
     Technologies.--
       (1) In general.--Section 9(aa) of the Small Business Act 
     (15 U.S.C. 638(aa)) is amended--
       (A) by redesignating paragraph (5) as paragraph (6); and
       (B) by inserting after paragraph (4) the following:
       ``(5) Pilot program for small businesses to scale 
     technologies.--Upon request by a Federal agency, the 
     Administrator shall grant a waiver from the requirement under 
     paragraph (1) with respect to a Phase II award under the SBIR 
     program or STTR program of the Federal agency if the Federal 
     agency ensures that--
       ``(A) the total funding associated with the Phase II award 
     under the SBIR program and the STTR program does not exceed 
     $20,000,000;
       ``(B) not more than 33 percent of the total funding, public 
     or private, included or required by the funding agreement may 
     be paid with funding under the SBIR program or the STTR 
     program of the Federal agency;
       ``(C) for the Department of Defense, the Phase II award 
     directly supports a Department of Defense operational need 
     and has a clearly defined transition path to support military 
     capabilities; and
       ``(D) if the waiver is granted--
       ``(i) not more than 25 percent of the SBIR program budget 
     of the Federal agency for any fiscal year will be expended on 
     Phase II awards for which a waiver is granted under this 
     paragraph; and
       ``(ii) not more than 25 percent of the STTR program budget 
     of the Federal agency for any fiscal year will be expended on 
     Phase II awards for which a waiver is granted under this 
     paragraph.''.
       (2) Sunset.--Effective on October 1, 2025, section 9(aa) of 
     the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638(aa)) is amended--
       (A) by striking paragraph (5); and
       (B) by redesignating paragraph (6) as paragraph (5).
       (b) Requirement for Defense Innovation Unit; Pilot Program 
     for Acceleration of High Priority Technologies.--
       (1) Definitions.--In this subsection--
       (A) the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' 
     means--
       (i) the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship of 
     the Senate;
       (ii) the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate;
       (iii) the Committee on Small Business of the House of 
     Representatives;
       (iv) the Committee on Armed Services of the House of 
     Representatives; and
       (v) the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the 
     House of Representatives;
       (B) the terms ``armed forces'' and ``Secretary concerned'' 
     have the meanings given those terms in section 101 of title 
     10, United States Code;
       (C) the term ``major system'' has the meaning given the 
     term in section 3041 of title 10, United States Code;
       (D) the terms ``Phase I'', ``Phase II'', ``Phase III'', 
     ``SBIR'', and ``STTR'' have the meanings given those terms in 
     section 9(e) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638(e)); 
     and
       (E) the term ``small business concern'' has the meaning 
     given the term in section 3 of the Small Business Act (15 
     U.S.C. 632).
       (2) Requirement.--The Director of the Defense Innovation 
     Unit of the Department of Defense shall establish a 
     mechanism, such as a major system, to provide small business 
     concerns with direct access to program and requirements 
     offices throughout the Department of Defense that may 
     purchase technology from small business concerns under Phase 
     III of the SBIR or STTR program of the Department of Defense.
       (3) Pilot program for advancing small business 
     development.--
       (A) In general.--
       (i) Set aside.--Of the amounts authorized to be 
     appropriated by this Act, or otherwise made available for 
     fiscal year 2025, to carry out an SBIR program of a component 
     of the armed forces, that component shall use 1 percent of 
     those amounts to provide for the procurement of high priority 
     technologies (as so identified by the chief acquisition 
     officer of the component), specifically the procurement of 
     systems that have been supported through Phase I or Phase II 
     awards of that program but have not become programs of 
     record.
       (ii) Combining funding.--For the purposes of clause (i), 
     multiple components of the armed forces may combine amounts 
     that each component is required to use as described in that 
     clause to jointly provide for the procurement of high 
     priority technologies.
       (B) Notification.--Not later than 90 days after the date of 
     enactment of this Act, the chief acquisition officer of each 
     component of the armed forces shall submit to the appropriate 
     congressional committees a list of which technologies that 
     officer has identified as high priority technologies under 
     subparagraph (A).
       (C) Report.--Not later than 1 year after the date of 
     enactment of this Act, each Secretary concerned shall submit 
     to the appropriate congressional committees a report that 
     contains policy change recommendations identified as a result 
     of the pilot program carried out under this paragraph by the 
     applicable component of the armed forces to facilitate the 
     rapid adoption of technologies supported by the SBIR program 
     of the component.
       (c) Limitations on Amount of Awards and Number of 
     Applications.--Section 9 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 
     638) is amended by adding at the end the following:
       ``(yy) Limitations on Total SBIR and STTR Award Amounts and 
     Applications.--
       ``(1) Total award amount.--A single small business concern, 
     including any subsidiary or affiliated entity of the small 
     business concern, may not receive more than $50,000,000 in 
     Phase I and Phase II awards, in the aggregate, from Federal 
     agencies participating in the SBIR or STTR program.
       ``(2) Applications.--
       ``(A) In general.--A small business concern may not submit 
     more than 10 applications to a single Federal agency for each 
     SBIR or STTR program award solicitation of the Federal 
     agency.
       ``(B) Department of defense.--For purposes of subparagraph 
     (A), the Department of Defense shall consist of 1 Federal 
     agency.''.

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