118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1606
AN ACT
To amend the Small Business Act to codify the Boots to
Business Program, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Veteran Entrepreneur-2
ship Training Act of 2023’’. 3
SEC. 2. BOOTS TO BUSINESS PROGRAM. 4
Section 32 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 5
657b) is amended by adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘(h) B
OOTS TOBUSINESSPROGRAM.— 7
‘‘(1) C
OVERED INDIVIDUAL DEFINED .—In this 8
subsection, the term ‘covered individual’ means— 9
‘‘(A) a member of the Armed Forces, in-10
cluding the National Guard or Reserves; 11
‘‘(B) an individual who is participating in 12
the Transition Assistance Program established 13
under section 1144 of title 10, United States 14
Code; 15
‘‘(C) an individual who— 16
‘‘(i) served on active duty in any 17
branch of the Armed Forces, including the 18
National Guard or Reserves; and 19
‘‘(ii) was discharged or released from 20
such service under conditions other than 21
dishonorable; and 22
‘‘(D) a spouse or dependent of an indi-23
vidual described in subparagraph (A), (B), or 24
(C). 25 3
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‘‘(2) ESTABLISHMENT.—During the period be-1
ginning on the date of enactment of this subsection 2
and ending on September 30, 2028, the Adminis-3
trator shall carry out a program to be known as the 4
‘Boots to Business Program’ to provide entrepre-5
neurship training to covered individuals. 6
‘‘(3) G
OALS.—The goals of the Boots to Busi-7
ness Program are to— 8
‘‘(A) provide assistance and in-depth train-9
ing to covered individuals interested in business 10
ownership; and 11
‘‘(B) provide covered individuals with the 12
tools, skills, and knowledge necessary to identify 13
a business opportunity, draft a business plan, 14
identify sources of capital, connect with local 15
resources for small business concerns, and start 16
up a small business concern. 17
‘‘(4) P
ROGRAM COMPONENTS .— 18
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Boots to Busi-19
ness Program may include— 20
‘‘(i) a presentation providing exposure 21
to the considerations involved in self-em-22
ployment and ownership of a small busi-23
ness concern; 24 4
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‘‘(ii) an online, self-study course fo-1
cused on the basic skills of entrepreneur-2
ship, the language of business, and the 3
considerations involved in self-employment 4
and ownership of a small business concern; 5
‘‘(iii) an in-person classroom instruc-6
tion component providing an introduction 7
to the foundations of self employment and 8
ownership of a small business concern; and 9
‘‘(iv) in-depth training delivered 10
through online instruction, including an 11
online course that leads to the creation of 12
a business plan. 13
‘‘(B) C
OLLABORATION.—The Adminis-14
trator may— 15
‘‘(i) collaborate with public and pri-16
vate entities to develop course curricula for 17
the Boots to Business Program; and 18
‘‘(ii) modify program components in 19
coordination with entities participating in a 20
Warriors in Transition program, as defined 21
in section 738(e) of the National Defense 22
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 23
(10 U.S.C. 1071 note). 24 5
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‘‘(C) USE OF RESOURCE PARTNERS AND 1
DISTRICT OFFICES.— 2
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator 3
shall— 4
‘‘(I) ensure that Veteran Busi-5
ness Outreach Centers regularly par-6
ticipate, on a nationwide basis, in the 7
Boots to Business Program; and 8
‘‘(II) to the maximum extent 9
practicable, use district offices of the 10
Administration and a variety of other 11
resource partners and entities in ad-12
ministering the Boots to Business 13
Program. 14
‘‘(ii) G
RANT AUTHORITY.—In carrying 15
out clause (i), the Administrator may make 16
grants, subject to the availability of appro-17
priations in advance, to Veteran Business 18
Outreach Centers, other resource partners, 19
or other entities to carry out components 20
of the Boots to Business Program. 21
‘‘(D) A
VAILABILITY TO DEPARTMENT OF 22
DEFENSE AND THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR .— 23
The Administrator shall make available to the 24
Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of 25 6
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Labor information regarding the Boots to Busi-1
ness Program, including all course materials 2
and outreach materials related to the Boots to 3
Business Program, for inclusion on the websites 4
of the Department of Defense and the Depart-5
ment of Labor relating to the Transition Assist-6
ance Program, in the Transition Assistance 7
Program manual, and in other relevant mate-8
rials available for distribution from the Sec-9
retary of Defense and the Secretary of Labor. 10
‘‘(E) A
VAILABILITY TO DEPARTMENT OF 11
VETERANS AFFAIRS.—In consultation with the 12
Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the Adminis-13
trator shall make available for distribution and 14
display on the website of the Department of 15
Veterans Affairs and at local facilities of the 16
Department of Veterans Affairs outreach mate-17
rials regarding the Boots to Business Program, 18
which shall, at a minimum— 19
‘‘(i) describe the Boots to Business 20
Program and the services provided; and 21
‘‘(ii) include eligibility requirements 22
for participating in the Boots to Business 23
Program. 24 7
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‘‘(F) AVAILABILITY TO OTHER PARTICI -1
PATING AGENCIES.—The Administrator shall 2
ensure information regarding the Boots to 3
Business program, including all course mate-4
rials and outreach materials related to the 5
Boots to Business Program, is made available 6
to other participating agencies in the Transition 7
Assistance Program and upon request of other 8
agencies. 9
‘‘(5) C
OMPETITIVE BIDDING PROCEDURES .— 10
The Administration shall use relevant competitive 11
bidding procedures with respect to any contract or 12
cooperative agreement executed by the Administra-13
tion under the Boots to Business Program. 14
‘‘(6) P
UBLICATION OF NOTICE OF FUNDING OP -15
PORTUNITY.—Not later than 30 days before the 16
deadline for submitting applications for any funding 17
opportunity under the Boots to Business Program, 18
the Administration shall publish a notice of the 19
funding opportunity. 20
‘‘(7) R
EPORT.—Not later than 180 days after 21
the date of enactment of this subsection, and not 22
less frequently than annually thereafter, the Admin-23
istrator shall submit to the Committee on Small 24
Business and Entrepreneurship of the Senate and 25 8
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the Committee on Small Business of the House of 1
Representatives a report on the performance and ef-2
fectiveness of the Boots to Business Program, 3
which— 4
‘‘(A) may be included as part of another 5
report submitted to such committees by the Ad-6
ministrator related to the Office of Veterans 7
Business Development; and 8
‘‘(B) shall summarize available information 9
relating to— 10
‘‘(i) grants awarded under paragraph 11
(4)(C); 12
‘‘(ii) the total cost of the Boots to 13
Business Program; 14
‘‘(iii) the number of program partici-15
pants using each component of the Boots 16
to Business Program; 17
‘‘(iv) the completion rates for each 18
component of the Boots to Business Pro-19
gram; 20
‘‘(v) to the extent possible— 21
‘‘(I) the demographics of pro-22
gram participants, to include gender, 23
age, race, ethnicity, and relationship 24
to military; 25 9
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‘‘(II) the number of program 1
participants that connect with a dis-2
trict office of the Administration, a 3
Veteran Business Outreach Center, or 4
another resource partner of the Ad-5
ministration; 6
‘‘(III) the number of program 7
participants that start a small busi-8
ness concern; 9
‘‘(IV) the results of the Boots to 10
Business and Boots to Business 11
Reboot course quality surveys con-12
ducted by the Office of Veterans Busi-13
ness Development before and after at-14
tending each of those courses, includ-15
ing a summary of any comments re-16
ceived from program participants; 17
‘‘(V) the results of the Boots to 18
Business Program outcome surveys 19
conducted by the Office of Veterans 20
Business Development, including a 21
summary of any comments received 22
from program participants; and 23
‘‘(VI) the results of other ger-24
mane participant satisfaction surveys; 25 10
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‘‘(C) an evaluation of the overall effective-1
ness of the Boots to Business Program based 2
on each geographic region covered by the Ad-3
ministration during the most recent fiscal year; 4
‘‘(D) an assessment of additional perform-5
ance outcome measures for the Boots to Busi-6
ness Program, as identified by the Adminis-7
trator; 8
‘‘(E) any recommendations of the Adminis-9
trator for improvement of the Boots to Busi-10
ness Program, which may include expansion of 11
the types of individuals who are covered individ-12
uals; 13
‘‘(F) an explanation of how the Boots to 14
Business Program has been integrated with 15
other transition programs and related resources 16
of the Administration and other Federal agen-17
cies; and 18
‘‘(G) any additional information the Ad-19
ministrator determines necessary.’’. 20
Passed the House of Representatives June 20, 2023.
Attest:
Clerk. 118
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
H. R. 1606
AN ACT
To amend the Small Business Act to codify the
Boots to Business Program, and for other pur-
poses.