II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 38
To amend the Small Business Act to codify the Boots to Business Program,
and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY24 (legislative day, JANUARY3), 2023
Ms. D
UCKWORTH(for herself and Ms. ERNST) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business
and Entrepreneurship
A BILL
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
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Veteran Entrepreneur-4
ship Training Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. BOOTS TO BUSINESS PROGRAM. 6
Section 32 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 7
657b) is amended by adding at the end the following: 8
‘‘(h) B
OOTS TOBUSINESSPROGRAM.— 9
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‘‘(1) COVERED INDIVIDUAL DEFINED .—In this 1
subsection, the term ‘covered individual’ means— 2
‘‘(A) a member of the Armed Forces, in-3
cluding the National Guard or Reserves; 4
‘‘(B) an individual who is participating in 5
the Transition Assistance Program established 6
under section 1144 of title 10, United States 7
Code; 8
‘‘(C) an individual who— 9
‘‘(i) served on active duty in any 10
branch of the Armed Forces, including the 11
National Guard or Reserves; and 12
‘‘(ii) was discharged or released from 13
such service under conditions other than 14
dishonorable; and 15
‘‘(D) a spouse or dependent of an indi-16
vidual described in subparagraph (A), (B), or 17
(C). 18
‘‘(2) E
STABLISHMENT.—During the period be-19
ginning on the date of enactment of this subsection 20
and ending on September 30, 2028, the Adminis-21
trator shall carry out a program to be known as the 22
‘Boots to Business Program’ to provide entrepre-23
neurship training to covered individuals. 24
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‘‘(3) GOALS.—The goals of the Boots to Busi-1
ness Program are to— 2
‘‘(A) provide assistance and in-depth train-3
ing to covered individuals interested in business 4
ownership; and 5
‘‘(B) provide covered individuals with the 6
tools, skills, and knowledge necessary to identify 7
a business opportunity, draft a business plan, 8
identify sources of capital, connect with local 9
resources for small business concerns, and start 10
up a small business concern. 11
‘‘(4) P
ROGRAM COMPONENTS .— 12
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Boots to Busi-13
ness Program may include— 14
‘‘(i) a presentation providing exposure 15
to the considerations involved in self-em-16
ployment and ownership of a small busi-17
ness concern; 18
‘‘(ii) an online, self-study course fo-19
cused on the basic skills of entrepreneur-20
ship, the language of business, and the 21
considerations involved in self-employment 22
and ownership of a small business concern; 23
‘‘(iii) an in-person classroom instruc-24
tion component providing an introduction 25
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to the foundations of self employment and 1
ownership of a small business concern; and 2
‘‘(iv) in-depth training delivered 3
through online instruction, including an 4
online course that leads to the creation of 5
a business plan. 6
‘‘(B) C
OLLABORATION.—The Adminis-7
trator may— 8
‘‘(i) collaborate with public and pri-9
vate entities to develop course curricula for 10
the Boots to Business Program; and 11
‘‘(ii) modify program components in 12
coordination with entities participating in a 13
Warriors in Transition program, as defined 14
in section 738(e) of the National Defense 15
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 16
(10 U.S.C. 1071 note). 17
‘‘(C) U
SE OF RESOURCE PARTNERS AND 18
DISTRICT OFFICES.— 19
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator 20
shall— 21
‘‘(I) ensure that Veteran Busi-22
ness Outreach Centers regularly par-23
ticipate, on a nationwide basis, in the 24
Boots to Business Program; and 25
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‘‘(II) to the maximum extent 1
practicable, use district offices of the 2
Administration and a variety of other 3
resource partners and entities in ad-4
ministering the Boots to Business 5
Program. 6
‘‘(ii) G
RANT AUTHORITY.—In carrying 7
out clause (i), the Administrator may make 8
grants to Veteran Business Outreach Cen-9
ters, other resource partners, or other enti-10
ties to carry out components of the Boots 11
to Business Program. 12
‘‘(D) A
VAILABILITY TO DEPARTMENT OF 13
DEFENSE AND THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR .— 14
The Administrator shall make available to the 15
Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of 16
Labor information regarding the Boots to Busi-17
ness Program, including all course materials 18
and outreach materials related to the Boots to 19
Business Program, for inclusion on the websites 20
of the Department of Defense and the Depart-21
ment of Labor relating to the Transition Assist-22
ance Program, in the Transition Assistance 23
Program manual, and in other relevant mate-24
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rials available for distribution from the Sec-1
retary of Defense and the Secretary of Labor. 2
‘‘(E) A
VAILABILITY TO DEPARTMENT OF 3
VETERANS AFFAIRS.—In consultation with the 4
Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the Adminis-5
trator shall make available for distribution and 6
display on the website of the Department of 7
Veterans Affairs and at local facilities of the 8
Department of Veterans Affairs outreach mate-9
rials regarding the Boots to Business Program, 10
which shall, at a minimum— 11
‘‘(i) describe the Boots to Business 12
Program and the services provided; and 13
‘‘(ii) include eligibility requirements 14
for participating in the Boots to Business 15
Program. 16
‘‘(F) A
VAILABILITY TO OTHER PARTICI -17
PATING AGENCIES.—The Administrator shall 18
ensure information regarding the Boots to 19
Business program, including all course mate-20
rials and outreach materials related to the 21
Boots to Business Program, is made available 22
to other participating agencies in the Transition 23
Assistance Program and upon request of other 24
agencies. 25
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‘‘(5) COMPETITIVE BIDDING PROCEDURES .— 1
The Administration shall use relevant competitive 2
bidding procedures with respect to any contract or 3
cooperative agreement executed by the Administra-4
tion under the Boots to Business Program. 5
‘‘(6) P
UBLICATION OF NOTICE OF FUNDING OP -6
PORTUNITY.—Not later than 30 days before the 7
deadline for submitting applications for any funding 8
opportunity under the Boots to Business Program, 9
the Administration shall publish a notice of the 10
funding opportunity. 11
‘‘(7) R
EPORT.—Not later than 180 days after 12
the date of enactment of this subsection, and not 13
less frequently than annually thereafter, the Admin-14
istrator shall submit to the Committee on Small 15
Business and Entrepreneurship of the Senate and 16
the Committee on Small Business of the House of 17
Representatives a report on the performance and ef-18
fectiveness of the Boots to Business Program, 19
which— 20
‘‘(A) may be included as part of another 21
report submitted to such committees by the Ad-22
ministrator related to the Office of Veterans 23
Business Development; and 24
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‘‘(B) shall summarize available information 1
relating to— 2
‘‘(i) grants awarded under paragraph 3
(4)(C); 4
‘‘(ii) the total cost of the Boots to 5
Business Program; 6
‘‘(iii) the amount of program funds 7
used for domestic and international travel 8
expenses; 9
‘‘(iv) the number of program partici-10
pants using each component of the Boots 11
to Business Program; 12
‘‘(v) the completion rates for each 13
component of the Boots to Business Pro-14
gram; 15
‘‘(vi) to the extent possible— 16
‘‘(I) the demographics of pro-17
gram participants, to include gender, 18
age, race, ethnicity, and relationship 19
to military; 20
‘‘(II) the number of program 21
participants that connect with a dis-22
trict office of the Administration, a 23
Veteran Business Outreach Center, or 24
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another resource partner of the Ad-1
ministration; 2
‘‘(III) the number of program 3
participants that start a small busi-4
ness concern; 5
‘‘(IV) the results of the Boots to 6
Business and Boots to Business 7
Reboot course quality surveys con-8
ducted by the Office of Veterans Busi-9
ness Development before and after at-10
tending each of those courses, includ-11
ing a summary of any comments re-12
ceived from program participants; 13
‘‘(V) the results of the Boots to 14
Business Program outcome surveys 15
conducted by the Office of Veterans 16
Business Development, including a 17
summary of any comments received 18
from program participants; and 19
‘‘(VI) the results of other ger-20
mane participant satisfaction surveys; 21
‘‘(C) an evaluation of the overall effective-22
ness of the Boots to Business Program based 23
on each geographic region covered by the Ad-24
ministration during the most recent fiscal year; 25
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‘‘(D) an assessment of additional perform-1
ance outcome measures for the Boots to Busi-2
ness Program, as identified by the Adminis-3
trator; 4
‘‘(E) any recommendations of the Adminis-5
trator for improvement of the Boots to Busi-6
ness Program, which may include expansion of 7
the types of individuals who are covered individ-8
uals; 9
‘‘(F) an explanation of how the Boots to 10
Business Program has been integrated with 11
other transition programs and related resources 12
of the Administration and other Federal agen-13
cies; and 14
‘‘(G) any additional information the Ad-15
ministrator determines necessary.’’. 16
Æ
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