Small Business Management and Technical Assistance Training Programs

This report examines the historical development of federal small business management and technical assistance training programs; describes their current structures, operations, and budgets; and assesses their administration and oversight and the measures used to determine their effectiveness. It also discusses legislation considered during the 114th Congress to improve program performance and oversight, including * P.L. 114-88, the Recovery Improvements for Small Entities After Disaster Act of 2015 (RISE After Disaster Act of 2015), which, among other things, authorizes the SBA to provide up to two years of additional funding to its resource partners to assist small businesses located in a presidentially declared major disaster area and authorizes SBDCs to provide assistance outside the SBDC's state, without regard to geographical proximity to the SBDC, if the small business is in a presidentially declared major disaster area. This assistance can be provided "for a period of not more than two years after the date on which the President" has declared the area a major disaster. * H.R. 207, the Developing the Next Generation of Small Businesses Act of 2016, which, as ordered to be reported by the House Committee on Small Business on March 23, 2016, includes the Small Business Development Centers Improvement Act of 2016, the Women's Business Centers Improvements Act of 2016, and the SCORE for Small Business Act of 2016. The bill would require the SBA to only use authorized entrepreneurial development programs (SCORE, WBCs, SBDCs, etc.) "to deliver entrepreneurial development services, entrepreneurial education, business incubation services, growth acceleration services, support for the development and maintenance of clusters, or business training"; add data collection and reporting requirements for SBDCs; authorize to be appropriated $21.75 million for WBCs for each of FY2017-FY2020 (WBCs were appropriated $17 million in FY2016); increase the WBC annual grant award from not more than $150,000 to not more than $185,000 (adjusted annually to reflect change in inflation); authorize the award of an additional $65,000 to WBCs under specified circumstances; authorize the SBA to waive, in whole or in part, the WBC nonfederal matching requirement for up to two consecutive fiscal years under specified circumstances; modify SCORE program requirements with respect to the role of participating volunteers, program plans and goals, and reporting; authorize to be appropriated $10.5 million for SCORE in each of FY2017 and FY2018; and add language concerning the provision and reporting of online counseling by SCORE. * H.R. 2670 the Microloan Modernization Act of 2015, and its Senate companion bill (S. 1857), which would, among other provisions, require the SBA administrator to establish a rule enabling intermediaries to apply for a waiver to the requirement that no more than 25% of Microloan technical assistance grant funds may be used to provide technical assistance to prospective borrowers. This report also discusses legislation introduced in the Senate concerning SBDCs (S. 999, the Small Business Development Centers Improvement Act of 2015), WBCs (S. 2126, the Women's Small Business Ownership Act of 2015), and SCORE (S. 1000, the SCORE for Small Business Act of 2015).